Thursday, February 3, 2011

Norma’s (Tragic) Letter from Jos: 2 February 2011

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Norma’s (Tragic) Letter from Jos: 2 February 2011

Note: The writer runs Zamani Farms near Jos and serves many customers in the Abuja area. "Life among the ruins," said one customer. 

Hello customers,

This will be a relatively short newsletter. We have no electricity, and I have been able to get only one gallon of petrol for the generator, so I will have to send this email before the electricity finishes.

Whenever customers send their order and close by wishing me a "good weekend" I always have to laugh. We have not had a "good weekend" in Jos since 2009. We can never relax, because we never know what horror lies around the corner.

This past weekend was particularly awful. After a fight on Friday between some okada riders and some students of UniJos, a hellish scenario was let loose in Jos. The students attempted to demonstrate, and soldiers trying to keep them in the campus shot some of them (not fatally). The situation allowed youth gangs of both Christians and Muslims in the area of the university (the northern part of the city) to embark on a rampage of killing and burning of properties of other faiths. The conflict spread to some neighbouring villages, and to some other parts of the town. In the end, the whole of Farin Gada area of Jos was completely destroyed. This includes a couple of square km of the mechanics' village where about 80% of mechanics in Jos are located, including many sellers of spare parts. Some mosques and churches were burnt, as well as many houses and several petrol stations. The main regional vegetable market, from where most of the produce destined for Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt is loaded, was also completely destroyed, including the wholesale onion and tomato market. The area is completely devastated and is currently occupied by the army, with restricted movement in the area. The town is generally very tense, as everyone is expecting that there might be some retaliation attacks, and people are again afraid to move around.

Obviously this has had a terrible effect on our farm operations. We were initially not sure we would be able to send you any orders this week. We could not get to the farm on Saturday or Monday to do any work or get the crops watered. Many petrol stations owned by independent marketers are now on strike in protest at the burning of stations of their members and petrol is difficult to come by. In the end, we managed to put the orders together yesterday and as I write Audu is on his way to Abuja with your orders. They are generally complete, but with a couple of items mission. Please pardon us for the lapses.

As if we were already not having problems getting you nice onions, now that all the onions in Jos have been burnt, and the market destroyed, the security situation here will certainly discourage traders from bringing in onions from places like Kano and other areas in the north. I don't know when we will see onions again in Jos, and we have been forced to move them to the limited list.

To complete the picture, raids on villages in the rural areas continue to be a problem. On Sunday, Wereng, the village which was attacked the previous week where 12 people were killed (and which is the home village of some of our farm staff), was attacked again, with two more people killed. Of course our staff couldn't not get to the farm in the circumstances, and work on the farm suffered as a result.

I really feel terrible that we are unable to offer our customers the level of quality service that you want and deserve, especially given the immense amount of support you have given us in this difficult situation.

I don't know when all of this is going to end. We are trying our best amidst these problems, but I don't know for how much longer we can continue. On the 18th of this month I am going to be 68 years old. I had originally thought this farm would be a good "retirement" project for me -- something I could enjoy, and also be useful. For over 10 years it fulfilled its purposes admirably. But recently, since the crisis began last January, it seems I got more than I bargained for. We will see if things are going to improve, but we are not encouraged because it seems no one is really trying to do anything to solve the problem.

We had hoped that by this month we would be able to resume twice weekly deliveries, but we have had to postpone this for the moment. As you probably know, our vehicle has been off the road for several weeks and needs major repairs. With no spare parts available in Jos, and most of the mechanic workshops destroyed, there is no safe place to have a vehicle repaired in Jos at the moment. (My own mechanic, who has the only good Land Rover workshop in Jos, was completely burned out, with many vehicles destroyed in his workshop alone). We are presently paying N25,000 to a hired vehicle each time we make a delivery, and for us to expend N50,000 per week just on transport is completely impossible given our present volume of business.  Actually we really need a new delivery van, and had started looking for one some time ago, but with the difficulties we are facing now we don't have the resources to purchase one. So we will have to manage for some time with one delivery per week. We know this is not convenient for you, and stresses our delivery staff as they have many places to go on the delivery day, but there is really no alternative for us at present.So please bear with us, as you have been doing for some time now.

Meanwhile, things on the farm are growing well, and look very nice. Please consult the order form for items that can be ordered -- they are pretty much the same as for last week. Lettuces, herbs, spinach, cabbages, courgettes, potatoes, carrots, etc. are all lovely. New beans are coming up and we should start picking them soon. We hope to have enough leeks for you by next week, along with nice plum tomatoes in addition to the beef we have been supplying. Other items are also available and good.

I hope that reading our somewhat depressing emails will not put you off of ordering vegetables. We really need your business in order to survive. Your moral and material support is the reason we are still in business at all. With luck, we will be able to continue and weather the stormy conditions we are experiencing. But we don't know when the clouds will clear.

More farm news next week.

Regards,
Norma

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