Nigerians angry as hardship bites
Six months after the Federal Government announced the removal of fuel subsidy, the hardship occasioned by that decision is yet to abate, and Nigerians are increasingly growing angry with the situation.
The government has also failed to provide the palliatives it promised the citizens when it removed the subsidy, even as prices of goods and services had skyrocketed.
Even though the Federal Government had announced a N35,000 wage award for civil servants, it had paid only for the month of September. State governments have also pledged sums ranging from N10,000 to N25,000.
The impact of the volatile foreign exchange rate has also not helped the common masses as the prices of staple food items, transportation and other essential services have continued to skyrocket.
The government had promised to take critical steps, including rolling out Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, vehicles, which remained unfulfilled.
Due to the high cost of petrol transportation fares have tripled across the country. With the petrol price hovering at about N600 to N650, there is no hope in sight that transport fares would come down anytime soon, a development that is eating deep into the pockets of the citizens.
President Bola Tinubu on August 1, revealed that his administration was making provision to invest N100 billion to acquire 3,000 units of 20-seater buses powered by CNG.
“This new infrastructure fund will enable states to intervene and invest in critical areas and bring relief to many of the pain points as well as revamp our decaying healthcare and educational infrastructure.
“The fund will also bring improvements to rural access roads to ease evacuation of farm produce to markets. With the fund, our states will become more competitive and on a stronger financial footing to deliver economic prosperity to Nigerians,” he said.
Months after, the government is yet to redeem the pledge, making commuting across the country more difficult as transportation fare continues to go up.
A taxi driver in Abuja, Mr Jibila Audu said while passengers groan over the weight of transport fares, “those in the business are still not making profit due to the cost of fuel.
“Life generally has not been easy for anybody since this government came in. Three days after the president took over power on May 29, everything changed. I was working with a construction company and doing very well before this government came in.
“Now this (taxi driving) is what I am doing to survive. And I can tell you that there is no gain in it. By the time you buy fuel for about N50,000 and it takes you only on a few trips, you will come back to realise you made no gain.”
The President had also in his maiden Independence Day broadcast to Nigerians on October 1, 2023, announced a cash transfer programme which, according to him, would target vulnerable citizens.
Thereafter, on October 17, he launched the distribution of N25,000 per month to 15 million households.
The conditional cash transfer, according to the government, is one of 15 items in the Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Government and the Organised Labour on October 2, 2023.
This promise too is yet to materialise.
A chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State and political analyst, Adebayo Mathew, said that the citizens were yet to receive any money from the government.
“I am yet to see or hear of anyone who is benefiting from this cash transfer programme. I am beginning to see it as a scam.
“The level of poverty in the city is becoming something else and all our government can do is to be telling us promises.
“Right now, you can’t buy anything in the market, not even drugs. I’m talking of essential goods and services that nobody can survive without.
“When was the last time you heard people talking about lunch? Anyone who can afford breakfast and dinner is obviously rich.
“Majority of Nigerians survive on one meal per day. This is not what Nigerians bargained for. Yet some people are there buying exotic cars and only give fake promises to those who elected them”, Adebayo said.
Many have argued that the country’s refineries ought to have been fixed before the removal of subsidy. The government has assured that the Port Harcourt refinery, one of the four in the country, will commence operations by December 2023.
However, a cross section of Nigerians have expressed scepticism on the possibility of the refinery commencing operation in 2023, saying it could be “mere promise as usual”.
According to an On Air Personality working with Jordan FM Ushafa, Abuja, Mr Kelvin Adanu, “even if the refinery is commissioned this month, it will not produce anything.
“It is over a year now since former President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Dangote Refinery. Up till this last month of 2023, the refinery is still not working.
“We are used to all their lies. Moreover, it is not a guarantee that if the refinery begins to work, the price of fuel would come down.
“The best way to endure this government is not to expect anything. It is when expectations are not met that frustration comes in.”
But Comrade Jare Ajayi, the National Publicity Secretary, Afenifere Worldwide, said Nigerians should be hopeful.
“For us, we don’t want to say much on this yet. We are hopeful that the promise will be fulfilled before December 31. It is after that, we will issue a statement”, he said.
