Tomorrow, families across Nigeria are going to cele­brate Christmas, a time traditionally associated with joy, love, and festivities, with suppressed anger because prices of goods have gone through the roof.

The year, 2023, has been a very tough one for most Nigerians ex­cept those in the top echelon of the political and business class.

The removal of the fuel sub­sidy without planned palliatives has worsened the rate of poverty; this coupled with the devaluation of the naira, has brought untold hardship upon breadwinners across the country in the last six months.

The removal of the fuel subsi­dy has had a profound impact on the cost of transportation. Trans­portation costs in most routes have soared by over 500 per cent, and this has affected cost of goods and services.

This rise in cost of transpor­tation has resulted in a stagger­ing 40 per cent rise in food costs, a fact which has left many fami­lies struggling to even eat. A bag of 50kg rice that used to sell for N38,000 six months ago now sells for N68,000. The cost of almost ev­erything has gone up.

Sunday Independent spoke to Justice Uhuegbu, an activists and human rights lawyer about his thoughts concerning the season.

While x-raying the Christ­mas celebration, he said, “Any election preceding Christmas is always though especially where the government has not really settled down, and again depend­ing on who pilots the affairs of the government both at the na­tional and state levels and that is why we keep advising that people should be prepared before they take executive power.

“Actually, this year’s Christ­mas is going to be different. First of all, we all know what Nigeri­ans have been passing though even before this government came on board.

“First of all there was scarci­ty of food, inflation is rising on a daily basis. There is hunger in the country and so many other unpleasant indices.

“Fortunately or unfortunate­ly this government has come on board and we’re still waiting to see what the government is going to do.

“Remember what Nigerians faced before the election, the scarcity of our legal tender that is cash crunch.

“Unfortunately it has resur­faced again. As I speak to you Nigerians don’t have money to buy the necessary things that they need, especially food items.”

On the 50% transport waivers by the Federal Government, he said, “I don’t think that is the best solution to this problem.

“We don’t have government owned vehicles on the road, so how would it be implemented?

“If the federal government has made such an arrangement with five transport companies, for example, how would they at­tend to millions of Nigerians who would be traveling this season?”

In Abuja, the FCT, the story of hardship is also telling.

This year prices of staple foods, once the backbone of fes­tive spreads, have surged.

A 50kg bag of beans, a dietary staple, has seen its cost skyrocket from twenty-two thousand naira to an unsettling thirty-five to for­ty thousand naira.

The beloved Royal Stallion Rice, a centerpiece in many households, now demands a premium at sixty-two thousand naira, compared to last year’s forty-five to fifty thousand naira.

As a result, the merriment of holiday meals has become a care­fully budgeted affair, with fami­lies recalibrating expectations.

One of the residents our Correspondent spoke with, Mr. Lawrence Stephens, said: “The cost of chicken has nearly dou­bled, ranging between fifteen to eighteen thousand naira, in stark contrast to last year’s seven to ten thousand naira.

“Even the cost of turkey, once a celebratory centerpiece, has as­cended to new heights, with pric­es now fluctuating between thirty to thirty-five thousand naira.

“For families accustomed to the joy of shared meals, these soaring prices have necessitated a rethink of festive menus.

Similarly, Mrs Bukola Ad­eyemi, hinted that the familiar narrative of holiday travels to hometowns has encountered a detour this year.

The surge in transport fares, nearly doubling in some instanc­es, has rendered travel plans a luxury for many.

Bus terminals in Zuba, usu­ally bustling with holiday trav­elers, now bear witness to a sub­dued atmosphere as residents reconsider the affordability of trips home.

Mrs Charity Philip, mother of four, said the decision to pri­oritize food over clothing has become a poignant conversation within households.

Many parents have found themselves explaining to their children that, this year, the budgetary constraints dictate a choice between clothing and sustenance.