Why many Nigerian Muslims cannot afford Sallah rams

As the Eid-el-Kabir Muslim festival draws close, many Nigerians are realizing that buying a ram to commemorate the Sallah is one thing they cannot afford.

In past decades, Eid-el-Kabir was usually more elaborately and colourfully celebrated, with Muslims making it a point to buy rams during the festival.

Known generally as Ileya, Nigerians travelled to their homesteads to celebrate, rams were slaughtered in generous numbers and even non-Muslims took part in the festivities.

Today however, it has become a very pricey indulgence for many Nigerian Muslims.

What then has brought about this inability to perform Sallah properly for Muslims? We take a look at a few reasons:

ECONOMIC RECESSION:

Since the economic recession hit Nigeria, the price of a ram starts out N40,000 but could go as high as N150,000.

This rise in price has not been met with a corresponding rise in income for Nigerians thus, an inability to celebrate Sallah properly sets in.

FOREX:

The naira’s strength in the foreign exchange has been low for some time and with many sellers bringing in rams from neighbouring nations, there is always the tendency for prices to go up and beyond the reach of what a Muslim could afford.

TRANSPORTATION:

Another problem is transportation, as ram dealers spend so much to bring the rams to places where there is demand, bringing about an increase in price.

With a few days to Sallah, it is likely that few Muslims would come together to buy a ram to mark the festivities and save cost.

Unfortunately, there will be many who would go through Ileya with no ram to celebrate.