The Yoruba’s Eid-el-Kabir festival, also known as the Ileya festival, will take place in 2023 during a time when many people are struggling to put food on their tables.

The second and biggest of the two major festivals observed in Islam is Eid-al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice. Rams and other suitable animals are sacrificed during the festival as offerings to Allah.

The festival is always a time for feasting, revelry, and celebration in Nigeria. It provides a chance for families to get together, as well as for clubs or communities to host carnivals and other cultural gatherings.

OHAFIATV News reports that with only a few hours until the festival, Muslims in Ogun State are working hard to ensure they are not left out of this year’s festivities. Many people already experience heartbreak due to the need to purchase a ram, acquire essential foods, and purchase new clothing and footwear for the family, and this is made worse by the skyrocketing cost of these items.

In contrast to previous years, there is no longer any Eid-el-Kabir celebration excitement in Ogun communities.

Everywhere in the nation, people are lamenting the inflation rate in the same way.

“By now, most of the attendees from Lagos and other locations for this festival would have returned home, but nothing comparable is happening now. Iya Kabiru, a local trader, told our correspondent that it appears that people are not yet prepared to travel down for the Sallah.

Muslims used to tether their cows or rams in front of their homes, as Iya Kabiru mentioned, as a way to assure their neighbors that everything is ready for the festival.

“However, this year, that is not the case. Since you first came to this street, have you seen any rams? Nothing is left. Rams are now too expensive for the average person to purchase. Alhaji Azeez Ojo in Oluwo, Abeokuta, said, “We can only think of a way out.

According to information obtained by our correspondent, Muslims who could not afford to pay N200,000 or more for a medium-sized ram have turned to buy cows with their own money.

“We four gave N100,000 each to buy that cow in the trunk of the car. We will equally distribute it among ourselves.

An elderly man explained the situation at the Kara market in Rounder, saying, “That is better than buying a “lamb” with a lot of money.

Our correspondent’s research showed that both buyers and sellers are dissatisfied with the state of the economy right now.

The buyers go home empty-handed because the money they have falls short of the prices they had anticipated, while the sellers whine about the low customer traffic.

According to the information gathered, rising inflation led to an increase in commodity prices, which reduced the purchasing power of typical Nigerians.

Additionally, the general public had not yet fully recovered from the effects of the Buhari administration’s disastrous naira redesign policy, which hurt several businesses, when President Bola Tinubu slammed them with the removal of fuel subsidies and subsequent naira devaluation.

“I visited the market this morning, but I was unable to make any purchases. The price of everything I wanted to purchase has increased by more than 100%.

Items like pepper, tomatoes, rice, Garri, palm oil, and others have skyrocketed in price. I just got home,” said Mrs. Ismail, an Idiroko resident, to our correspondent.

Drivers raise transportation costs

Drivers in all parking lots have raised transportation costs as is customary, making the suffering of the poor masses worse.

OHAFIATV News noted that the cost of transportation increased as soon as the price of gasoline at the pump increased to over N500 after the subsidy was eliminated.

For instance, the N900 fare from Abeokuta to Iperu was raised to N1500. Owode Yewa to Abeokuta now costs N2500 instead of N2000.

Iperu to Abeokuta is now N2,000 and Owode to Abeokuta is N3000, according to commuters who traveled the same routes today.

This is the case, according to information obtained by OHAFIATV News, and it forces visitors to look for less expensive alternatives or postpone their trip.