The Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams, has said the northern traders, under the aegis of Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers in Nigeria, will shoot themselves in the foot if they don’t reconsider their stance on the food blockade to the South.
He said the businesses of the members of AUFCDN are not sustainable without southern region of the country.
Adams, who reeled out supposed facts and figures to buttress his claim, noted that there would be no food crisis in the south because of the blockade.
He said,”Talking economically, you make money from the South-West, you use it to develop your own region. There was a statistics that the average number of cows being consumed in Lagos on daily basis is between 13,000 and 15,000. And when you now do the overall statistics in the South-West and we realize that the entire South-West eat a total of 25,000 cows per day.
“Now quantify 25,000 cows at N100,000 each, that is about N2.5billion per day on cows alone. We are not talking of sheep, we are not talking of goats, we are not talking of rams, and we also not talking of perishable goods.
“So calculating all these things together, it means you are not making anything less than N6billion per day from us. So in a month, that would be about N180 billion and let us even say it is N150 billion. And N150 billion multiplied by 12, that would amount to N1.7 trillion yearly.”
Adams noted that Yoruba cannot be intimidated by the food blockade as their culture frowns on indolence.
He stressed this is evident in the number of people from the ethnic group contributing to the running of the economy, education and other sectors of the north.
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He said, “It doesn’t make sense and this is a region that is not lazy. We are not lazy. If we want to talk about laziness, it doesn’t happen in even our civil service structure. Our people would resume normally by 8:00am, they would close by 5pm. In the North, they resume by 10am or 11am, they close by 1pm, we are not lazy. And when you are talking of business, we are entrepreneurs.
“Tell me anything, Yoruba are involved in many businesses, conventional. But your own businesses are sectional. I am talking about artisans, am talking of those who are into mechanical field, am talking of those who are welders by profession, those who are into carpentry; majority of their vehicles in the North, it is Yoruba that service them, Yoruba professionals repair them. Apart from being shoemakers, how many artisans can Hausa/Fulani boast of, so we can’t compare ourselves with them in intellects.
“Most of the best lecturers in their universities are Yoruba. Even the foodstuffs you want to block from coming to the South-West, they should know that majority of them, 90per cent comes from the Middle-Belt, that is Benue and Plateau state and partly Niger state.”
Members of the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers in Nigeria, had last week decided to go on strike to register their grievances against the way they were treated recently in the south.
The traders specifically mentioned the recent ethnic crisis at Shasha Market in Ibadan which allegedly resulted in the killing of many of their members.
The traders, however, called off the strike three days ago after a meeting with Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi and a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode.
But there are speculations that the traders have not started bringing food items and other produce to the South.
