As the Eid-el-Kabir celebration by Muslim faithful inches closer, the prices of animals used for sacrifice during the annual festival have skyrocketed in the major markets of Kaduna State.
Eid-el-Kabir is celebrated annually by Muslims all over the world through the slaughtering of animals to reflect the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail, for the sake of God.
The hike in the cost of basic commodities in Nigeria has reflected itself boldly in the livestock sector, a situation that is likely to deny average Muslims the means to partake in the annual sacrifice amidst economic hardship.
At demolished Dubar Hotel ram market in Kaduna where our Correspondent visited, there were rams for sale but they attracted high prices.
A ram seller, Musa Aliyu said a ram that was sold for N100,000 last year now sells for between N200,000 and N25,000.
According to him, the price of medium-sized ram, which cost N120,000 in 2023 is now going for between N400,000 to N600, 000 while the large-sized ram of N700,000 has gone up to between N900,000 and N1 million. The smallest are however sold for between N70,000 and N80,000.
Another seller, Hassan Mohammed lamented low patronage, saying that buyers are not forthcoming.
“I have been in this business for over 15 years now, when you compare the prices in the previous years you will discover that the prices are not the same, this year the cost of ram is very high. The places where we used to buy them, they sold to us at a very high price, the inflation rate is affecting the prices of everything including livestock.
“Their feeds are also expensive, we buy a sack of feed for N20,000 to N25,000, it used to be N10,000. The other cheap feed we buy for N7,000.
Mohammed Idris who bought a ram at N150,000 said, “This year’s price is very high compared to last year, even though last year’s price was high. Every year, prices of ram keep increasing. I just bought because I had no option”.
Some of the residents who spoke to our correspondent said, the high prices of rams will make poor Nigerians not to buy one for this year’s Sallah.
Mr. Musa Yahaya, a labourer and a father of 7 children lamented, “Everything has gone up in the country including sachet water. The country is becoming very tough on daily basis. We can hardly feed, rice is expensive, in fact everything is high. Tomatoes of N1,500 before is now N6,000, I don’t know where we are going in this country”.
They all called on the government to make life easy for average Nigerians, lamenting that the hike in prices of food items is unbearable.