HORRIBLE UNRIPE-RIPE FRUITS.

Please my dears, if anyone knows the President, Nigerian Association of Fruit Sellers(NAFS), biko, help me deliver this small message to him or her. I heard they hold their annual convention at the beginning of the year, not too early though. They said they usually wait till the first rain comes.

Help me tell the President that “ejoo”( I don’t know if the spelling is correct sha, but I am trying to write “please” in Yoruba),their Union members should please allow fruits to ripen on its own, naturally. In recent years, me and many others(I suppose) have been misled by the sight of fruits that look well-riped, we buy and go home happy, savoring the yummy to come. But when we taste it, one wonders what is wrong.

I don’t know what they do to it, some say the sellers pour hot water on the fruits to make them ripen quickly. Some others say they cover it up so heat would ripen quickly. There are probably other ways that I have not thought about, nor heard of. But one thing remains the same whichever way……..…. artificially ripened fruits, or should I say “hastily” ripened fruit IS NOT BAE!!!

You will see yellow paw-paw, udara or banana, the thing will be soft and hard at the same time. You will not get reasonable juice from a bite or squeeze. The thing will just be tasting like plastic. You will see korokoro that its banana you put in your mouth, but you will be wondering if it is actually (natural) banana that you are eating, or a synthesized lab-version of it. Last mango season was not funny at all. It was as if mango only lasted for three(3)weeks in the market. It flooded the market all at once, and disappeared even more suddenly.

Mr President( Fruit-Sellers Association President oooooo, not President Buhari), all of us were not born in this indomie-generation that want things sharp-sharp. Some of us witnessed the last generation, and loved the way they waited patiently for nature to take its course. I suppose in a haste to make money, your Union members hack off fruits from trees all at once. What happened to the fun of waking up very early in the morning so you would be the first to pick off matured and riped fruits that fell on the ground on their on, or by the blow of wind. You think God that made it to be that everything does not ripe one day is a fool. At least get to enjoy fruits for a period(sometimes for months) if each ripens at its own “pace”.

Maybe I am alone, maybe other people cannot relate with this frustration I am talking about. Abeg, na beg I dey beg, no be shout, no bi vex, na beg, Mr President, biko talk to/with your Union people.