Nigeria: Easter Celebration - Prices of Goods Still Normal

                         

All over the world, Festive periods are al-ways times to look forward to... activities like shopping for new dresses, shoes, food items and other goodies. At these periods, traders usually make a lot of sales;consequently prices of goods and services witness a rise too.

But as there are different festive periods like Christmas celebration commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ,New Year and Eid-el-kabir so also the level of preparation by especially Christians and Moslems respectively.

For instance, it has been discovered that faithfuls of the two popular religions: Christianity and Islam usually take the celebrations of Christmas, New Year and Eid-el-kabir more seriously than any other like the Easter,hence the prices of goods and services usually sky rocket. Even traders get more patronages at Christmas, New Year and Eid-el-Kabir than during Easter.

No wonder this Easter, a time when one would have expected to see Nigerians trooping to the market, expecting a hike in prices of goods and services, increased market activities and sales, everything appears ' dry' and normal. Activities at markets across the country are still business as usual with little or no difference to show that Easter is here. There seems to be calm everywhere with the absence of the normal hustling and bustling which usually characterize the festive periods.

However, tracing the history of Easter celebration before 2013, observations were made that Christians used to celebrate it in a bigger way in the past. As a matter of fact, it was perceived that Christians and Muslims in Nigeria have generally dwindled their approach to the celebration of festivals. Why is there a low spirit towards this year's Easter? Why are children not getting new dresses and shoes at this time? And why are traders not smiling to the banks?

Some Nigerians have blamed the cause of the low disposition towards this year's Easter celebration on the poor economic situation in the country.

Obinna, 47, a trader, thinks the economic situation in the country has gone so bad that the masses can no longer afford three square meals. He then reach conclusions that if Nigerians can't afford to feed well, why will they remember to celebrate festive periods? Obinna then had a nostalgia to the era when Nigeria still had almost everything going for her. He remembered a time, back in his village, Umueze in ImoState, when as a child, his parents would have started the preparation for Easter three days to the D-day.

Nigeria

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