Doors of government offices, banks and other corporate organisations are expected to reopen for official business, today, following the expiration of the two-day Sallah holiday declared by the Federal Government.
The holiday was to allow Muslims in Nigeria join their counterparts across the world to celebrate the annual Eid el-Kabir on Monday and Tuesday.
The Tide reports that the entire stretch of Obio/Akpor and Port Harcourt City local government areas were nearly deserted as streets and road were almost empty during the period of the holidays.
The popular Abali Motor Park and others within the two local governments were also scarcely busy while the few tourist centres witnessed increased human traffic of merrymakers.
In the city centre of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), was for the most part deserted during the holidays due to the mass exodus of the residents who had travelled out of the Nigerian capital to spend the holidays with family and friends.
A cross section of residents who could not travel claimed to have enjoyed the holidays in Abuja, while others were unhappy that the country’s economic downturn had imposed a low key celebration on them, with gratitude to God for a “bomb free” Sallah celebration.
Our correspondents’ visit to major motor parks in Port Harcourt, Obio/Akpor council areas and Abuja, yesterday afternoon, observed an increase in private and commercial vehicles returning to the city.
It was gathered from an official of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), identified as Yunusa, that the “bad economic” situation in Nigeria had greatly affected this year’s holiday.
“Before now, people used this period to travel to their home towns, states or elsewhere to celebrate with friends and families, but the case was totally different this period,” he said.