‘We ought to sell the fruits last week, but they were delivered just yesterday’

•Bad roads, bandits, fuel costs: The ordeal of Ibadan fruit sellers

‎Behind every basket of fresh fruits displayed in local markets lies a difficult journey. The journeys are filled with sacrifice, uncertainty, and survival. ELIZABETH BABAWALE, an intern with the Nigerian Tribune, writes on the effects of poorly-maintained roads, bandit attacks along certain routes, and continuous increase in fuel price have on the financial survival of fruit sellers. Traders in the popular Oje Market in Ibadan tell their story.

THE time was 9:00 a.m. The scene was the popular Oje Market in Ibadan, Oyo State, widely acknowledge as the home of fruits in the sprawling city.

Fruits like oranges, tangerines and other citruses; mangoes, African star apple when it is in season; watermelon, banana, plantain, and the likes are daily in display in this market. Activities for the day had begun. The fruit sellers were making their way to their stalls.

One by one they gathered, waiting anxiously for a truck which ought to have delivered its goods, this time oranges, 12 days earlier.

The delay, they knew, could be attributed to two major factors – bandits’ attack, which has turned farm routes into no-go areas, and a road so badly damaged that hours spent on journeys become prolonged, leaving drivers and passengers worn out, and the transported fruits facing phases of change.

As the long-awaited truck finally groaned into the market, the sellers heaved a sigh of relief.

They were all expecting the delivery of rotten oranges, which meant a total loss, but there was a glimmer of hope, the hope of making a little proceed appeared on their faces as the oranges tumbled out of the truck.

The skins of these oranges were already soft, having lost the firm texture and the glossy, waxy, sheen, fresh look which the oranges…