Fuel Subsidy Removal: Nigerians Groan Under High Cost Of Living

The recent removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government has thrown many families and individuals across the country into deep hardship and difficulties.
Many homes are finding it difficult to cope with the high cost of living that the government policy has thrown at them. And with no palliatives or improvement in incomes coming their way, they are doing what they can to cope.
Many have been forced to make tough choices about how to survive the hardship. Such choices range from trekking long distances to work to changing feeding habits to enable them cope with the situation.
President Bola Tinubu had on May 29 during his inauguration, declared that subsidy on fuel would no longer be paid. Immediately after his speech, the price of petrol rose to N520 from N219. Less than two months after when the people were still trying to adjust to the new price, NNPC Ltd, which was the sole importer of petroleum products, adjusted the price to N617 per litre.
The ripple effect of the hikes immediately took instant toll on transportation fares, which rose by 200 percent and above in many places. Prices of foodstuff and many essential commodities went up as well. School fees, rents and school bus fares have been going up since then.
The removal of the subsidy has made it difficult for people to leave home to pursue their daily bread. The high cost of transportation has also made it impossible for some parents to leave home to get food for their families.
With high unemployment rate in Nigeria, many people are without jobs, and they are finding it difficult to cope with the new situation. Parents cannot even pay their children’s school fees and buy books as school administrators do not want to hear parents’ complaints because they have to pay their teachers’ salaries and run the schools.
Some children are sitting at home, not because they don’t want to go to school, but because their parents cannot afford the transport cost.
Fares that were N50 have now become N100; N100 to N200; N200 to N300 and more. Moreover, the fares are not stable. What you paid as fare on the way out may change upwards on your way back. This could get you stranded or even lead to even fight with drivers. To avoid these, people have decided to rather stay indoors to face hunger at home.
As many people indulge in long treks because of lack of money, with nothing to eat at home before embarking on trekking, people are slumping on the road on empty stomach.
Mrs. Rose Ikpe residing at Okujagu village, who has been struggling and labouring to feed her family, could not bear the burden quietly. One day, she opened up in frustration and screamed uncontrollably in the neighbourhood.
“I will say this oo because this man wants to kill me.”
“Can you people believe that I am the only one carrying the load of my family? My husband is not doing anything, and he is at home sleeping and eating the little I get from my mama-put business.
“This removal of subsidy has made transportation to be very high. And he has decided to stay at home. When I asked him, he asked why did I expect him to go out with this high cost of transportation?
“Please, you people should talk to him oo, because I cannot bear this burden alone. Feeding the three children with him and other expenses is too much for me. I say, I cannot or I will quit this marriage and stay alone. I will rather die than continue like this,” she lamented.
Many parents have turned their children of school age to hawkers. They are hawking sachet water. This is the only business you can start with N300 to N350 per bag.
Mrs. Grace Udoh said she was already tired of struggling alone so the children should join in raising income for the family. “So, it is better they get the experience of life than staying without knowing the hardship we are facing in this country,” she said.
One parent in Eleme area of Rivers State, Mrs. Sylvia Otue, who has four children in private schools said she was considering withdrawing the children from their current schools and placing them in cheaper schools.
She said one of the children’s schools had hiked bus fare twice in this last term, from N25,000 to N35,000 and N45,000 following the hikes in fuel price. She said she was looking for schools nearer home where they can walk to school without having to pay bus fares or hire taxis to take them to school.
Another parent, Mr. Enyinna Agha, said given the way things were, he was considering placing his children in public schools and then hiring private teachers to couch them at home.
Shortly before the schools closed for the third term, school gates became crowded with parents who had to personally come to pick up their children from school as they could not pay for school bus or hire cabs to take the children to school and back.
Nigerians are appealing to President Tinubu to reconsider the subsidy removal or resuscitate the refineries to bring down the cost of fuel and reduce the hardship bedeviling the populace.
The sudden removal of subsidy has adversely affected cost of living in virtually every area of life in the country. Cost of food items, transportation fare, house rent, medicals, drugs, clothing, and so on, are now very prohibitive with the masses of the people having very low purchasing power.
Even transporters lament that though fare costs have increased, life is tough for them.
One of them, Mr. Ogom Okonkwo operating in Port Harcourt, said, “You find that all your efforts end at the filling station. No transporter is finding it easy.”