Cost of living crisis reshapes Eid spending in Nigeria
Abuja, Nigeria – Seated on a plastic chair inside his modest madrassa in Abuja, Yunus Akanji listened as children recited verses from the holy Quran in soft, rhythmic tones. Some sat on mats, others on long wooden benches. The Islamic teacher occasionally corrected a pronunciation or repeated a line, but his attention drifted. For years, Akanji, who teaches at the Nurul Bayan Islamic School, travelled with his wife and children to Saki in Oyo State to reunite with his extended family for Eid al-Adha, often called Sallah in Nigeria. When he did not make the trip, he would buy a ram for Eid and host a modest celebration with his family and students. This year, neither is happening. Yunus Akanji, an Islamic tutor at Nurul Bayan Islamic School, guides his students during recitation of the Quran [Hussain Wahab/Al Jazeera] “I have concluded that we will just celebrate with whatever we have,” he told Al Jazeera. The annual Muslim festival, marked by communal prayers and the ritual sacrifice of animals, is approaching amid deep economic strain in Nigeria. In Abuja, rising food and transport costs are quietly changing how many families are preparing for Eid. No travel home Akanji said even parents and community members who usually support his madrassa are struggling. “Most of them have not even paid,” he said, referring to tuition fees that help keep the school and his household running. The pressure is not confined to the classroom. It shows up in bus stations, in markets, and in the small calculations people make before deciding whether to travel or stay. Advertisement Nafisa Ibrahim from Ogun, currently in Abuja doing a mandatory one-year programme for graduates under the National Youth Service Corps, said she has dropped her plan to go home for Eid. Transport costs alone made it impossible. There is also no guarantee her family will even be able to slaughter an animal this year. “Transportation is about 35,000 naira [about $26], compared to the 15,000 naira [about $11] I paid when I came to Abuja in February,” she said. Opeyemi Ibrahim, a fashion designer based in Byazhin district, said customer patronage has dropped sharply despite the approaching festivities. Opeyemi Ibrahim at his fashion shop in Byazhin, where he says business has slowed [Hussain Wahab/Al Jazeera] He said rising fuel costs and erratic electricity supply have pushed up his operating expenses. “When there is no electricity, we have to run the generator,” he said. “Filling it costs about 10,000 naira [$7]. But without it, the shop becomes too hot, and we still need power to iron customers’ clothes.” Inside Kubwa livestock market At a livestock market in Kubwa, visited by Al Jazeera ahead of Eid, the strain is obvious before anyone even speaks. Men stand beside rams tied to wooden posts. Buyers move from one animal to another, ask a few questions, then drift away. Malam Ibrahim, a livestock seller who has been in the trade for years, sat near the feed, watching most of his customers leave empty-handed. “People come, ask for prices, and walk away,” he said. Malam Ibrahim, a livestock seller at Kubwa market, rests during a slow sales day [Hussain Wahab/Al Jazeera] He pointed to a ram nearby, with black-and-white markings on its body. “This ram is selling for 600,000 naira [about $438],” he said. “Last year, the same size was below 350,000 naira [$255].” Getting animals down from northern Nigeria, Sokoto, Kaduna and beyond, has become more expensive. Fuel prices, transport fares, everything feeds into the final cost. “Even the sellers are suffering,” Ibrahim said. If sales stay slow, he worries the animals will remain unsold after Eid, when their value drops further. “We do not pray to take them back home, but with the looks of things, I fear so,” he said. Eid cutbacks One woman who had come to buy two rams left with only one. Buhari Yishau, a fruit seller, works at Kubwa village market, where sales have slowed ahead of Eid [Hussain Wahab/Al Jazeera] Inflation has been steady in Nigeria for years now, but what people feel most is the gap between rising prices and stagnant incomes. The naira may look more stable against the United States dollar than last year, traders say, but moving goods across the country still costs more every month. Advertisement At Kubwa village market, buyers kept moving, but few stopped to buy. Vendors selling tomatoes, onions, rice and cooking oil said sales were slower than usual, with many families cutting back even on basic festive food. “We used to celebrate Eid with joy,” one trader said quietly. “Now we just calculate what we can afford.” Adblock test (Why?)
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Bahrain jails nine defendants for life for ‘cooperating’ with Iran’s IRGC
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‘A paper city’: New York ‘library’ hosts 3.5 million pages of Epstein files
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The shelves hold documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, alongside timelines, handwritten visitor notes, and a memorial space dedicated to survivors and victims. Since opening two weeks ago, the gallery has drawn a steady stream of visitors, including survivors of a string of offences linked to Epstein. Lara Blume McGee, who was only 17 when she was abused by Epstein, visited the reading room last week. “I found something brutally human in the Trump-Epstein reading room,” Blume McGee told Al Jazeera. “Proof that our lives mattered enough to be gathered, cataloged, and finally seen.” Advertisement She described entering the room as walking into a “paper city”, with three and a half million pages on display, a sight that hit her “like a physical blow”. What she remembers most vividly is the silence. “The silence was thick with memory,” she said. “Row after row, each bound volume a life, a name, a day that should never have happened if the US government had acted when he was reported to the FBI in 1996.” The overwhelming scale of the archive is intentional. Organisers say the physicality of the documents forces visitors to confront not only the extent of Epstein’s crimes, but also the number of lives affected by them. Thousands of victims have been identified in connection with Epstein’s abuse network. One of the most prominent survivors, Virginia Giuffre, died by suicide in April 2025. 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Only after printing the collection did they discover that many survivors’ names remained visible in the files. “What seems to have happened is the Department of Justice modified its search function instead of actually redacting the names,” Garrett said. “The names of survivors were left unredacted while the names of witnesses and co-conspirators were hidden. They brazenly broke the law.” Finding a venue also proved difficult. Garrett said several locations backed out after initially agreeing to host the exhibit, fearing controversy or retaliation. The Tribeca gallery ultimately became the fifth venue that organisers approached. Despite these challenges, survivors and advocates quickly embraced the project. On Tuesday, the gallery became the site of a 24-hour livestream reading of the files led by survivors, advocates and supporters. Dani Bensky, an Epstein survivor, opened the broadcast Monday afternoon, standing at a podium inside the dimly lit gallery with one of the thick white volumes in her hands. Advertisement Her reading marked the beginning of a continuous public recitation of excerpts from the files – an attempt, organisers said, to ensure the documents are not quietly buried again. Throughout the gallery, visitors have left flowers, handwritten notes, and messages of grief and anger. Garrett recalled one woman who spent hours walking silently through the space before telling organisers she was herself a survivor of sexual abuse. “She said this helped her realise that she felt seen,” Garrett said. “That meant a lot to us.” For Blume McGee, that feeling of visibility carries both relief and frustration. “For years we were told to be quiet, to accept settlements, to move on,” she told Al Jazeera. “Seeing our truths preserved in a public archive felt like a long-overdue acknowledgment of our pain, our abuse and our reality.” But she warned that documentation alone is not justice. “This exhibition gives real hope because the record is now undeniable,” Blume McGee said. “Finally, there is action: documentation, visibility, proof. But those same files map systemic failure — how many doors stayed shut, how many people escaped scrutiny.” “Visibility without consequence only prolongs the wound,” she added. “We need both: the files on the table and the government to act — investigate, prosecute, reform — so that being ‘finally seen’ becomes finally safe.” Adblock test (Why?)
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