Waiting for customers

• The silent struggle of Abuja’s traders
From Francis Onyedikachukwu, Abuja
 
The   silence is what strikes you first. Not long ago, the aisles of Wuse Modern Market, Abuja, pulsed with the sounds of bargaining customers, traders calling out buyers and porters weaving through crowded walkways with loaded trolleys. Today, the atmosphere is markedly different. Shop owners sit quietly outside their stores, watching the hours pass as empty corridors stretch before them.
 
Entrance of Wuse Market.
 
For many traders in Abuja, business has become an exercise in patience, resilience and hope. Outside his interior decoration shop, Ejike scans the long row of stores opposite his o...