One day, I was in the Market...

3 months ago

There are so many markets where I reside that I don’t know them all. Haven’t been to most of them only those within my vicinity. The only markets I have visited are Central, Monday, Friday, Sunday and the General Sabo market.

I found myself here buying ingredients for shop, however, I went behind the central market referred to as Bakindogo. This is very much where I get fresh vegetables and tuber crops at half the price. Like most markets in Kaduna, there are divisions and subsections. For example we have the tomatoes on display here...

And then we have the onions sections as well. As you may have noticed, this market is dominated by the Muslims and other northerners.

There are Christians as well but not as much as the Muslims. What I needed where onions, oil, food packs, leather bags, and some plantain. I got my onions and moved straight into the oil ville as I called it.

I have a certain seller I like to patronize for oil and that is this guy...

For some reason, his oil always sells cheaper than the rest in that area. When I was done getting my oil (half of 25 litres), I walked a few steps ahead to buy the plantains.

Plantains are no longer in season which makes them scarce and expensive right now. This area would be filled with loads of unripe and ripe plantain in the past.

But now, I am getting a few fingers (five to be exact) for N1,500. I wasn’t buying this one for the shop but to eat at home instead.

Leaving oil ville, I walked back to the entrance to purchase the food packs. Over here in Nigeria, and in Kaduna state, we use both plastic and foam packs. Foam is more affordable as we include the fees with the meal. Given the rate of inflation, people lean towards the foam than the plastic. I still have 100+ plastic takeaways sitting untouched in the shop. This, however, I have gotten twice already.

The leather bags are used to sell stuffs like Akara. Compared to then, they have lost their quality and sell at outrageous prices. I bought a bunch of it at N3,200 recently. Dropped by 300 naira.

Marching forward, I decided to buy a small amount of Spring onions. Mind you, I reside close to the Sabo U/Pama market and often buy things there in small quantities. I saw a huge difference between what the people at Sabo sold to me at N300 with what I bought N300 here. These guys gave me way more than I expected. This proves that Central Market, especially Bakindogo, gives better prices in almost everything except clothes and shoes. They are beast when it comes to those. Sabo takes the gold when it comes to textiles. Affordable and durable.

I headed back to Monday market where my mother was waiting for me. This was weeks ago when we had gone out to get yam only to receive the shock of our lives from the prices. That was how we decided to switch to full meals.

I passed by this curtain place and you see that? My name. Can I sue them? Lol.

This little guy was trying to be inconspicuous. I hadn’t seen a guinea fowl in ages which also reminded me I hadn’t eaten their eggs in longer than that. I whistled at it (if you could call it that) and continued on my way.

It was Monday and Monday market was visibly livelier than the Central Market. This is because many people make the most of this market day. Even stall owners in Central come here to display and sell their goods. Overall, Mom and I left without the yams and invested the money into something else. So far, it is proving to be a good decision.