Almost every day when I go out, transportation is at a different price from the previous day. It has become even worse now that drivers have taken to increasing the cost of transportation for any and every reason excluding just because the price of fuel is high and they need to make profit.
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You could hear that the distance is double the price because it is raining. Or that it is night so the price to pay to the distance you're headed shouldn't be the same price. It was never like that before.
Just last week, the amount from the central hub of my city, plaza, to my house was about two hundred and fifty naira. As at today, it is unapologetically three hundred naira and the drivers are even prepared to drive an empty bus rather than to carry you for less than the fixed price.
The fuel hike has affected transportation here such that walkable distances are now being charged at hundred naira. The drivers don't even want street guys or any other person hanging on their buses for a free ride. I was in a minibus a couple of days back and one of the conductors on the streets jumped on the bus I was in. The driver got so upset that he stopped the bus and asked the man to get down.
Despite the man's pleadings saying that he just wanted to drop at an eatery in front of us, the driver insisted that he didn't want anybody hanging on his bus. Instead he said the man should pay for a seat and he would be taken there without hesitation.
Initially when this fuel hike began and fifty naira was added to the original fare of all locations, I said that if the fuel price kept hiking, one day someone would have to pay five hundred naira to their location. My roommate and I laughed about it but with the way things are going now, it seems that prophecy is coming to pass gradually.
The only transportation that hasn't increased unreasonably is the student shuttle and I wonder how those drivers make profit because compared to other bus drivers on the streets, they are losing a lot.
Sometimes I am skeptical about going out because when I calculate the cost of transportation and whatever it is I have to go and do, I just hands off most times and decide not to embark on whatever journey it is, especially when it is neither pressing nor extremely important.
I went to spend the holiday at my mom's not too far from where I live and before I left, I washed out all my dirty clothes hoping to leave them for a few days and go back home to pack them up when they must have dried.
When I calculated the transportation from her house to mine, it was exactly a thousand naira. I decided not to spend a thousand naira on transportation to pack my clothes so instead I phoned my neighbor and pleaded with her to help me get the clothes when they are dried.
Though she didn't get them immediately and rain got them soaked again, I wasn't bothered because I knew that I had the clothes problem solved. I would have preferred to go over to my house by myself and pack up my clothes, have them folded and maybe ironed out at once before returning to my mom's house but one thousand naira can go a very long way so I decided not to.
During past governments, I have heard of fuel subsidies and how it makes the price of fuel more affordable, I think the present Nigerian government should get that implemented as well. If they pay some of the fuel bill, then Nigerians would be able to afford the rest and life would be much easier.
If nothing is done about this fuel hike, a lot of things would go worse than we expect. The problem with crime is that some of those criminals have done everything they can to survive and when there's no headway for them to succeed, they venture into stealing, fraud and looting.
Before fuel pipelines start getting vandalized or a violent protest breaks out, the government should put a subsidy into consideration. It is bad enough that food is almost unaffordable, transportation shouldn't be added to the list as well.
Funny enough, the price of food has also increased because of the same fuel hike. People can no longer move their foodstuff and wares from one location to another without spending most of their profit on transportation.
If the government truly has the citizens at heart, then they should subsidize fuel for us or else, this is the beginning of a lot of problems to come.