The organized private sector has raised alarm over the increasing incidents of theft targeting trucks transporting food and essential materials. They caution that if left unchecked, this situation could result in the suspension of operations for industries throughout the country.
Gabriel Idahosa, President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, emphasized that the prevailing economic challenges are causing a rise in disorder.
He highlighted that these attacks could exacerbate the difficulties faced by businesses and potentially result in their closure.
Idahosa said, “The chickens are coming home to roost. The government has asked the people to be patient, but the stomach cannot be patient even if the head wants to be patient. In a state of anomy, it will lead to a state of anarchy.
“There is no distinction between public and private in a state of anarchy. When the government allows chaos to happen, chaos does not know whether it is government or private property. When it rains, it doesn’t rain only on government or private property.
“The looters are not concerned whether it is government or private property. They just want food, anything that looks like food, they will go after it. This is why concerned observers have asked the government to look for concrete measures to reduce the state of hunger in the land.’’
“We have gone beyond the phase of speculation; we are now in the phase of reality. In the last two or three days, these kinds of events have been escalating. It will require concerted efforts to stop the trend,’’
Idahosa pointed out that numerous top manufacturing companies in the nation experienced substantial financial losses in the 2023 fiscal period and could potentially decide to close their operations and make employees redundant due to the theft of their goods.
He said, “All of them are reporting losses in billions. The smaller companies are also having their own losses. It just doesn’t make it to the front pages of the newspapers.
‘’Last week, we went to meet the CEO (chief executive officer) of one of the largest food and beverage companies in Nigeria and he said that some of his colleagues, who are foreigners, said they were totally confused that they did not know what to do; that they were frustrated. He was just sharing their frustration with us.
“With the present situation, we are not just looking at price hikes alone. They may decide to close down the business and fire all the people.”