Abuja, Nigeria – Seated on a plastic chair inside his modest madrassa in Abuja, Yunus Akanji listened as children recited verses from the holy Quran in soft, rhythmic tones. Some sat on mats, others on long wooden benches.
The Islamic teacher occasionally corrected a pronunciation or repeated a line, but his attention drifted.
For years, Akanji, who teaches at the Nurul Bayan Islamic School, travelled with his wife and children to Saki in Oyo State to reunite with his extended family for Eid al-Adha, often called Sallah in Nigeria.
When he did not make the trip, he would buy a ram for Eid and host a modest celebration with his family and students.
This year, neither is happening.
“I have concluded that we will just celebrate with whatever we have,” he told Al Jazeera.
The annual Muslim festival, marked by communal prayers and the ritual sacrifice of animals, is approaching amid deep economic strain in Nigeria.
In Abuja, rising food and transport costs are quietly changing how many families are preparing for Eid.
No travel home
Akanji said even parents and community members who usually support his madrassa are struggling.
“Most of them have not even paid,” he said, referring to tuition fees that help keep the school and his household running.
The pressure is not confined to the classroom. It shows up in bus stations, in markets, and in the small calculations people make before deciding whether to travel or stay.
Nafisa Ibrahim from Ogun, currently in Abuja doing a mandatory one-year programme for graduates under the National Youth Service Corps, said she has dropped her plan to go home for Eid. Transport costs alone made it impossible.
There is also no guarantee her family will even be able to slaughter an animal this year.
“Transportation is about 35,000 naira [about $26], compared to the 15,000 naira [about $11] I paid when I came to Abuja in February,” she said.
Opeyemi Ibrahim, a fashion designer based in Byazhin district, said customer patronage has dropped sharply despite the approaching festivities.
He said rising fuel costs and erratic electricity supply have pushed up his operating expenses.
“When there is no electricity, we have to run the generator,” he said. “Filling it costs about 10,000 naira [$7].
But without it, the shop becomes too hot, and we still need power to iron customers’ clothes.”
Inside Kubwa livestock market
At a livestock market in Kubwa, the strain is obvious before anyone even speaks. Men stand beside rams tied to wooden posts. Buyers move from one animal to another, ask a few questions, then drift away.
Malam Ibrahim, a livestock seller who has been in the trade for years, sat near the feed, watching most of his customers leave empty-handed.
“People come, ask for prices, and walk away,” he said.
He pointed to a ram nearby, with black-and-white markings on its body.
“This ram is selling for 600,000 naira [about $438],” he said. “Last year, the same size was below 350,000 naira [$255].”
Getting animals down from northern Nigeria, Sokoto, Kaduna and beyond, has become more expensive. Fuel prices, transport fares, everything feeds into the final cost.
“Even the sellers are suffering,” Ibrahim said. If sales stay slow, he worries the animals will remain unsold after Eid, when their value drops further. “We do not pray to take them back home, but with the looks of things, I fear so,” he said.
Eid cutbacks
One woman who had come to buy two rams left with only one.
Inflation has been steady in Nigeria for years now, but what people feel most is the gap between rising prices and stagnant incomes. The naira may look more stable against the United States dollar than last year, traders say, but moving goods across the country still costs more every month.
At Kubwa village market, buyers kept moving, but few stopped to buy.
Vendors selling tomatoes, onions, rice and cooking oil said sales were slower than usual, with many families cutting back even on basic festive food.
“We used to celebrate Eid with joy,” one trader said quietly. “Now we just calculate what we can afford.”
