This year’s Easter celebration witnessed a low turnout in Delta State.
The yearly grooving accompanying it within Asaba metropolis and its environs fizzled away this year.
This is no thanks to the Boko Haram insurgency and the cashless policy initiated by the Central Bank on Nigeria.
Many of the popular eateries and amusement parks, including Mr. Biggs, Zisslers, Macdons, BigBites,and recreation centres like the Land of Extreme, operating within the capital city, were devoid of customers’ influx.
Commercial drivers who had planned big for the income expected from travellers during the season were all disappointed as people stayed put where they are due to financial constraints.
Residents of the oil rich state simply stayed at home with their family members, enjoying the best the season could offer.
The Eagle Online gathered from commercial drivers at the Ibusa Motor Park in Koka, along the Asaba-Onitsha Expressway, that the untold low patronage they experienced was due to the incessant attacks by terrorists and the policy.
A commercial driver, who identified himself as Chukwudi, said until the Federal Government deals decisively with insecurity, the people of Nigeria will continue to live in fear.
While Chukwudi listed the geometric rise in kidnapping and armed robbery across the country as sister setbacks to the growth and development of Nigeria, he wondered why terrorists have held the country hostage for close to two years with impunity.
A business woman, Ndidi Amaka, who was travelling to Kwale, Ndokwa axis of the oil rich state from Abuja, corroborated him at the park.
Amaka said: “My brother, the insecurity bedevilling the country has now called for sober reflection and since we can’t be in the mood of sober reflection and still be galivanting about in the name of celebration, hence, you see us sitting in our houses.
“How can we be celebrating when thousands of Nigerians have been thrown into psychological trauma in the last two years of Boko Haram terror?
“How can we celebrate amidst poverty?
“Are you not seeing poverty written on the faces of 85 per cent of Nigerians?
“This is a country where the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer.
“The truth is that there is no money to celebrate Easter, hence the parks are empty and the tourist centres witnessed no crowd.”
The situation was slightly different at Otres Fast Food, along the popular Okpanam Road, Asaba, owned by a top government functionary in the state.
Customers, including political appointees, were sighted, some with their family members and others with their loved ones, smiling in and out of the eatery with their hands full of take-away bags and ice-cream package.
A staff of the inn, who spoke under anonymity, simply attributed their successful patronage during the season to the significance attached to the eatery by the people of the state.
She said: “Aside the fact that this place is owned by a top woman in the government of this state, our food is pure and rich here.
“We don’t treat customers with disdain and this place is well-centralized.
“It is in the heart of the metropolis.
“Yes, we experienced high patronage.”
A customer at the ever busy Macdons, O. Okechukwu, an indigene of Ugboka in Enugu State, however, said he could not travel home because for lack of sufficient funds.
Okechukwu said: “Would I travel with empty pocket?
“Mind you, the people in the village believe you are coming from the city.
“So, they don’t expect you to come with empty hands.
“Things are expensive in the market and money to meet their demand is not there.
“My brother, don’t be surprised that you meet me here, I have simply come here to cool my tension and forget my sorrows, believing that tomorrow will be better.
“Whether we are alive or we are dead, we belong to the Lord.
“We trust in the divine providence of God.
“He has assured us that He will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory.
“That is the hope of the less privileged people of this country like us.”
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