Musa Kwalli
Amidst rising anxieties over the escalating cost of living, women and children from the town of Chiranchi in Kano State took to the streets in protest on Sunday evening, seeking government interventions with palliatives that could relieve the pain of the economic hardship they are experiencing.
The protesters, holding placards and voicing their frustrations, gathered in a delicate congregation to demand action from the leaders, particularly Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.
The protest, which came in the early evening hours, saw various groups of women and children from different vicinities of Chiranchi, Jaen, and their neighboring villages uniting to express their grudges.
One of the protesters, Habiba Sulaiman Umar, cited the deteriorating cost of living and joblessness as the major concerns for their protest.
“We came out because of the hardship we are in; with us are children who are crying because of hunger.
“There’s nothing we have that we can give the children, so we decided to take it up to our father, His Excellency Abba Kabir Yusuf, the executive governor of Kano State, to please empower women and youth because everyone is now orphaned in Kano.
“Our children are at home crying from hunger, and detergents and other household items are now very expensive. We are calling on the governor’s attention to come to our aid in this cause, she added.
Another protester, Maryam Abdullahi Muhammad, said that the main reason for their cry is demanding something tangible from the government to ease their suffering by reducing the high cost of living they’re experiencing.
“We are not asking the government to freely gift us food items; we want the government to subsidize food items, possibly to half of their current prices.
“We are aware that these crises of inflation and hardship are global things, but our focus right now is on Kano indigenes.
“We want to be empowered and assisted with anything tangible that will sustain us. We want the government to cut the prices of items; if something costs N100, it should be cut down to N50.
An elderly woman who asked for anonymity said she left her children at home stranded without knowing what to feed them.
“I have four children right now who are orphaned, and I’m aged and elderly; I can’t do much, and my children are crying from hunger and asking me about food.”
Since the federal government announced the removal of fuel subsidy, the cost of living has kept increasing daily, which accordingly puts many vulnerable citizens in starvation.
