Job losses, non-payment of salaries, rising cost of goods and services, persistent fuel scarcity, abysmal electricity power supply amid intense hot weather, among other hardships in the country in the past few months are combining to mount pressure on Nigerians leading to increased health risks, BDSUNDAY inquiries have shown.
Health experts who spoke to BDSUNDAY say these excruciating circumstances, which come with intense pressure, are not without adverse public health implications and may be contributing to rising cases of sudden death in the country.
Doyin Odubanjo, a public health expert and chairman, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria, Lagos chapter, said that any single one of the above issues surely has adverse effects on the quality of life.
“If you pick on poor power supply, especially now that you can see how hot the weather is, you can imagine what people go through. One, a lot of people develop heat rashes, which leads to itches. People suffer from heat sores, and people within the extremes of age will be more vulnerable to the heat – the elderly, the very young people,” Odubanjo said.
“I have a neighbour who has complained about the number of elderly people who have died in their church in recent times because they are in a not well-ventilated accommodation and, of course, the weather is very hot. Even those in better accommodations, they do not have power to put on the fans and the air-conditioners. That’s a problem on its own,” he added.
Odubanjo said though people use generators to provide electricity for themselves, even that comes with its own problems as well.
“You look at the generators, when they are on you talk of noise pollution. And with that people can’t even sleep well with the noise around them, and if you are not sleeping well you are not well. You wake up in the morning and go to work but you are tired because you didn’t have a restful night, as it were, because of all the noise around you. And that also affects even your mental wellbeing because you are not at your best because, basically you are under pressure,” he said.
“Of course, you have a lot of emission coming from the generator smoke all around us which can again give you all kinds of respiratory problems for those who are vulnerable to that, and this is also affecting your eyes. People with asthma have more attacks. These are all issues we have to deal with based on the current situation in the country. And, of course, on top of all of that is the general pressure of no money, everything not working, so you can have a lot of mental issues because you are not at ease. So we are looking at quality of life as a whole,” he added.
Indeed, the poor power supply situation in the country has increased the rate of sleep disorders as many people find it very difficult these days to sleep well under very harsh and hot weather conditions, without electricity to power their fans and air-conditioners. This has been made worse by the difficulty in getting fuel to power even the small generators.
John Uwem, a banker who resides at Satellite Town, Lagos, told BDSUNDAY that getting fuel was one problem and ensuring the noise of the generators was another.
“The generators come with their own problems as the noise and smoke they emit add to environmental pollution leading to additional health hazards. Rather than open our windows for ventilation, we are compelled to shut them to fend off the generator noise and smoke, but then we have to endure the heat inside which makes matters worse,” Uwem said.
“The other night I couldn’t sleep at all. The noise from the generators in my compound was so deafening that it gave me severe headache. Everywhere was vibrating and it was as if my heart would explode as my heart beat increased. I couldn’t sleep until about 2:00 am when the last generator was switched off. Honestly if I were hypertensive I would have died that night,” he added.
Funmilola James, national project manager, Breast Without Spot (BWS), told BDSUNDAY on phone that the hardships in the country can trigger stress-related illnesses, such as hypertension, cancer, and even cardiac issues.
“For patients who already have these conditions, of course it will only make it worse,” she said.
Added to the direct health implications is the cost pressure that unstable electricity supply is also bringing upon Nigerian families. With stable power supply many Nigerian homes like to cook meals (such as soup and stew) in large quantities and preserve them in refrigerators. These would usually last for a number of days or weeks, thereby reducing the expenses on food as well as eliminating the cost of frequent trips to the market.
But with poor power supply in many parts of the country in the last couple of months, families can no longer cook large quantities of meals. Because there is no means of preservation, many now cook only small quantities that can be consumed within a day or two. This has increased the frequency of trips to the market, invariably raising feeding expenditure for families and leaving very little extra for other pressing needs. It has also led to food wastages as unpreserved foods easily go bad and are emptied into the waste bins.
“Last weekend they brought light and we cooked soup and stew as usual thinking the light would last, but it didn’t last. After warming them for two days the taste changed and the soup was smelling bad. It was very painful, but we had to throw everything away,” Ijeoma Dike, a primary school teacher who resides with her family in Festac Town, Lagos, told BDSUNDAY.
Aggravating the situation is the fact that companies have been shedding jobs since last year and some that have not laid off staff have slashed workers’ salaries, while others, including many state governments, are struggling to pay.
Meanwhile, the prices of goods and services in the country continue to rise. BDSUNDAY market research in February showed that on the back of rising price of flour, the price of bread, a major staple for many Nigerian families, went up by at least N50 across the country. Big loaves of bread that used to sell for N200 sold for N250, while those that previously sold for N250 now sold for N300, with prospects of further increase.
Furthermore, a bag of beans (drum), which formerly sold for N21,000, sold for N23,000; a 50kg bag of garri sold for N4,000 as against its former price of N3,500; a 25kg bag of salt, which used to sell for N1,400, sold for N1,800, while 25 litres of Kings vegetable oil sold for N8,200, an increase of N1,000 from its previous price of N7,200.
Similarly, the price of a bag of Ogbono (a major soup thickener) went up by N35,000; it sold for N85,000 against its former price of N50,000. A bag of dried pepper, which used to sell for N37,000, sold for N45,000. A carton of Gino tomato paste (sachet) went for N2,400, up from its former price of N1,800.
Similarly, a BusinessDay retail industry price index as at 11th April, 2016 showed that prices of goods have further spiked. The price of Exeter corned beef (340g) went up by 37.5% from N400 to N550; Heinz baked beans (415g) which used to sell for N200 now sells for N250, an increase of 25%; Titus Sardine has moved from N165 to N200; Blackberry Passport Silver also moved from N123,000 to N150,000; Blackberry Passport from N123,000 to N126,000; and Samsung S6 edge (32GB) from N165,000 to N181,000.
Prices of some local goods have also further increased from their February rate. Maize (50kg) has gone up from N11,000 to N13,500; fresh tomatoes (big basket) from N5,000 to N17,000; beans (50kg) from N13,500 to N14,000; palm oil (25 litres) from N7,000 to N7,500; a big basket of fresh pepper from N2,500 to N5,000; groundnut oil (25 litres) from N6,500 to N9,500; a carton of Indomie noodles (big) from N1,500 to N2,500; a packet of Knorr cubes from N350 to N400; Eva toilet soap from N380 to N550; Semovita (2kg) from N2,500 to N3,800; wheat (2kg) from N400 to N500; and garri (50kg) from N5,000 to N5,500.
CHUKS OLUIGBO
