Take a drive to Akoka, University of Lagos in search of food. You are likely to find numerous vendors selling rice and of course turkey or go online, preferably on Twitter and ask for a vendor who sells food you are likely to get jollof rice or spaghetti and turkey.
Apart from established fast-food chains, most vendors would rather sell turkey than chicken.
Why is that? So, I went to a man who sells chicken, turkey and chips and asked why he sells more turkey than chicken. He said that turkey parts used to be much cheaper than chicken but with the economic downturn, the price of turkey has increased.
He might be wrong or knows a vendor who sells turkey cheaply for him because turkey is twice as expensive as chicken.
This was the price of turkey as of 2021 according to Askcostprice. “A full-grown live turkey in Nigeria cost between Nine Thousand Naira (₦9,000) to Eighteen Thousand Naira (₦18,000) depending on the size.”
I asked a Tolu, a resident of Lagos State if he thinks Lagos Vendors love to sell turkey. “Yes they do love to sell turkey. Bought one very big one day. It was scary and it’s always Turkey wings,” he says.
I have a few propositions about why turkey is used more often than chicken and especially why it is the wings used typically.
- Turkey is easier to keep than other poultry. Turkeys are easier to take care of, they are wild animals and do not fall sick like other poultry birds.
- Even though turkey is not soft meat, it is quite big, it looks good when you buy a meal and the source of protein is large and fat.
- What happens to the rest of the turkey? Well, it is sold, probably without the wings just like how people just buy chicken wings, that is the same way vendors buy turkey wings.
- Perhaps, people love turkey more than chicken hence, the demand makes these vendors buy it.
Wunmi an online food vendor said; “I don’t think there is any tangible reason other than the fact that people prefer Turkey to chicken.”
I ran a Twitter poll to confirm this and from my poll people actually prefer Chicken. It just seems like a fad and trend people might just be following blindly.
