Despite fuel prices crash, transport fares doubly higher in Lagos, Ogun
*Real reason Nigeria is in shamble currently - Anonymous *Says 'Our markets now in free for all, no one to report to' *As The DEFENDER's covert assignment concludes
By KEMI KASUMU and OUR REPORTERS, Lagos and Abeokuta
A source in Oshodi said, “Let me be frank with you, this Nigeria will not be better again.” Asked why he said, “Where do we start from? You just read in the newspapers president of our country saying he does not believe in price control. Let me leave you with your own interpretation of that in a country where people have cried with tears of blood for over one and a half years.”
As President Bola Tinubu continues his Christmas and New Year holidays in Lagos, his acclaimed country home state, costs of transportation, instead of coming down, keep going skyrocketedly up to the detriment of citizens thus depriving by Nigerians the benefit of the prices slashes by Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), at Christmas.
The DEFENDER’s checks showed that the inflated transport fares affected mostly intra-state movements in Lagos and Ogun states.
Our Reporters, who took samples of routes in both states, said Oshodi/Ikeja-Toll-Gate/Sango/Ifo on Lagos-Abeokuta Express Road and Toll-Gate/Sango-Atan-Owode-Iduroko routes had the most disappointing experiences in the deprivations that Nigerians of those two states suffered from the hands of transport operators at Christmas in a country that has government, rule of law and law enforcement agents.
Transport fares from Sango/Toll-Gate to Oshodi, which jumped from N300 when fuel under Buhari administration was N185 to N800 as fuel jumped to over N1,200 under Tinubu administration, instead of coming down as Dangote and NNPCL slashed ex-depot prices from over N1,000 to N899 and outlet prices of N935 and N950 respectively, have further gone up to N1,500.
Toll-Gate to Iyanapaja on the Lagos side of the route jumped from N300 to N1,000 and to Agege from N400 to N1,000.
From Toll-Gate to Atan on Idiroko route in Ogun State, transport fare jumped from N500 to N1,200 without anybody able to explain why.
On our stopover at Iyanapaja, a transport, operator asked to a reason for the fare hike, tried to blame it on fuel price increase but quickly calmed down upon being confronted with facts of how much fuel is now sold at major filling stations along the route especially at Dangote partnered MRS and NNPCL outlets.
He, however, changed his blame game and mounted it upon agberos, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) footsoldiers who increase charges and taxes on transport operators indiscriminately, namely Owo Load (Loading Tax), Owo Olopa (Police Tax), Owo Security (Security Tax), Owo Obstruction (Tax for wrong parking), Owo Aari (Morning Tax), Owo Osan (Afternoon Tax), Owo Irole (Evening Tax), Owo Alejo Chairman (Chairman Visitors Tax), etc, all of these taxes hurled on one bus per trip in Lagos State that is touted as Centre of Excellence.
In the meantime, although no agberos leader approached in the axis was able to speak to us, we got much information about the reasons for the unwarranted further transport fares hike through a covert approach to the investigation as two of our reporters had to take the tedious decision of practically traveling along the route to experience things for themselves.
After the assignment, it became clearer to The DEFENDER how not only agberos but also bus drivers, who themselves are habitually in the act of causing hardship especially now that everyone seems to be unafraid of anybody be it authority of state. Same in the markets.
A source in Oshodi said, “Let me be frank with you, this Nigeria will not be better again.” Asked why he said, “Where do we start from? You just read in the newspapers president of our country saying he does not believe in price control. Let me leave you with your own interpretation of that in a country where people have cried with tears of blood for over one and a half years.
“And the president, whose impracticable economic policies inflicted these pains on the people, is insisting that those policies have come to stay including his tax reforms that will now see him bring the same tax collection of Lagos State to Abuja and spread all over Nigeria.
“I tell you that Nigeria is a leadership driven country not followership driven and so if we want things to get better, those leaders saying their mouths what they want the people to do to make Nigeria better should themselves lead the way.
“That is why no matter how much denial the government give about allegations by the Head of State of the Republic of Niger, we will continue to be in dilemma believing them because, you cannot be lying to us that your policies have made us a better people away while accusing us that living a better life in the past was fake life and you think we can ever believe you, if anyone abroad tells how you are planning to use French military base to ruin our lives further.
“Lead us by example and you will see our society’s values returning to normal. You have a daughter who is in charge of the markets in Lagos, you have a son whose only business we know is to collect advertisements taxes and, from all we gathered, sand filling and some of the land related matters in Lagos and you are, indisputably, the Baba Isale for the agberos who make life in Lagos impossible to meet the standard of Saudi Arabia, United States, United Arab Emirates, Russia, China and the United Kingdom.
“Since economy of Lagos is one upon which economies of 35 other states of the federation are depended, don’t you realise that sickness of such economy of Lagos State under your control for 25 years is sickness that naturally affects the entire country? Worse still, now we have no one to report our problems to because, even poverty has been so weaponised among us that from among the victims of this hardship they are who go public on social media to say that our cries of hunger are fake.
“So, let me give you the only truth that you can take to your media organization for onward delivery to Nigerians and world about the problem we face currently in Nigeria. You can blame it on the government, the non-state actors, agberos, who whether fuel price is increased or not cause hardship of movement at will because they claim their Baba is now in Abuja, the transport operators of Lagos State themselves who do not see crowd of commuters at bus stops except they exploit that in hiking fares and then the weaponisation of poverty that has made the hungry Nigerians embrace the political propaganda of the political leaders and help use same against themselves and their fellow victims of the economic hardship inflicted by those merciless leaders. Thank you,” he said.
Asked to introduce himself, he said, “If you want Nigerians in our current situation and state of the nation to tell you truths and not twists, then stop asking them to introduce themselves because they will never tell you anything any further ant day again.”
