Nigeria, March 7 -- The combination of a sharp rise in the cost of energy and steep depreciation of the naira against major world currencies like the United States dollar, British pounds sterling and euro have triggered a debilitating form of cost pushed inflation in Nigeria, in a manner never experienced before. With the inflation rate officially estimated at about 30 per cent and wages stagnant at about N30,000 ($20) monthly and the naira exchanging above N1,500 to the dollar, most Nigerians have become impoverished, destitute and hungry. Unable to afford basic food items such as rice, yam, fish, beef, sugar, milk and bread, as prices have gone beyond their income, the widespread hunger in the country has reached an epidemic level, and ...