The struggle is real

The cost of living in Nigeria is never a new thing to everyone again, but then there are some areas that made living a hell for people, and my former area is one of the areas because for the past four years that I and my husband lived in that area, it wasn’t easy for us at all. Compared to where we are now, I think the new area is better, and the cost of living in our new apartment is fair compared to where we moved out.

It happens that we moved to this location because of a bigger apartment and, of course, to start a business as well, but to our surprise we couldn’t start the business on time after paying for the rent and buying some other stuff in the apartment.

So because we have used all the money we planned on using for the business on the apartment alone, we couldn’t buy foodstuffs in bulk the way we always do, which left us with no choice but to buy small quantities in the area; after all, we have to eat. The place is quite far from the market, and if we should go to the market, we have to be ready to buy in bulk, which we don’t have the power to do, so buying it in the area is the only choice we have.

That went on for some time, and one day my sister called me to come make her hair and her baby girl's as well, and that was before I opened my shop anyways. So I got to her place to do her hair.

While doing her hair, she sent her daughter to buy Dano milk sachets for her, and she gave her #500 for five sachets. I was surprised, so I asked why giving her that amount that wouldn’t reach to get the milk.

She replied, “It is sold for #100 per sachet.”

“What I shouted, we always buy it for #150 per sachet in our area,” she smiled and said, “You are living in a costly environment.”

I couldn’t believe my ears, so I asked again, “How much is one bottle of groundnut oil then?”

She replied, “#2,400.” Wow, this same bottle of groundnut oil is sold for #2,800 in my area.

In my sister’s area, there is a tricycle that carries people for cheaper prices, while we only have a bike that is very expensive in my area. Aside from all that, we don’t usually have light like them because from morning till evening that I spent in her place, they only took their light for 30 minutes and brought it back, unlike our area, where we only use light 2-3 hours in a day, and that is the highest hour we do see light.

When I got home, I told my husband that we need to leave this costly area because it’s frustrating knowing that things are cheaper somewhere while it is expensive in our area. Well, it is probably because they have a market close by to the house.

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This year we tried our best and moved out of the costly area to my sister’s area, though it’s not close to her house anyway, but buying things cheap and seeing cheap transportation is making me happy right now. We always have light now compared to the area we moved out of.

This country can never be better if some people don’t stop making life miserable for others all in the name of profit for themselves, because people that sell things cheap also gain as well.

All images are mine