HOW NIGERIAN BUTCHERS TURNED INNOCENT CONSUMERS INTO SCAVENGING VULTURES. By Emmanuel Wuyep

The current hardship in Nigeria is pushing many business operators into dishonesty and unhealthy practices.One of such operators are butchers and abattoirs authority.

Since the end justifies the means, somany butchers today do no longer diffentiate between dead animals and slaughtered ones.In some cases,they prefer the dead ones for its cheapness because in most cases the real owner might have thrown it to the dustbin for dogs and vultures to bury it.

The practice today is gaining momentum in both Muslim and christian dominated environments.In Hausa dominated rural set ups habitat by the poor,it is common to hear this defensive word"Ta kasa"meaning it was slaughtered before it could give up.But often than non, the proponents of "Ta kasa" are mostly hungry and dishonest people who are always willing to compromise their religion doctrine to satisfy their belly.

In the christians dominated rural set up,it is a usual practice where nobody challenges the other.Most pepper soup vendors and socalled pepper meat are Marchants of dead meat.They do their businesses with outmost confidence and any buyer that ventures to ask of the authenticity of the meat attracts their wrath and is being seen with oddity.

In Zaria suburb,a dead cow is sold for almost seventy to eighty thousand naira depending on the size of the bull.Tiv people of Benue state whose initial mission to the far Northern states was to hunt frogs have gradually abundant frogging business for scavenging which they transport to their state and sell for higher prices.

They are meeting new competitors in person of local butchers who do "hide and seek game" to sell the dead animals.Religiously, both Christianity and Islam forbid the consumption of such meat.

Abattoirs workers are not helping matter as most of them do not supervise the abattoirs; leaving butchers to act the way they want.In situation where they visit the slaughtering slab,they sit nonchalantly afar waiting for their share of the illicit act.

A commentator in Zaria and a devoted Muslim Alhaji Hudu Halidu said only Allah can salvage the situation as people's hearts are hardened like the biblical king Pharo.