09/01/2012 / NIGERIA
Protesters in the central Nigerian city of Kaduna on Monday. Video posted to YouTube by wumi007.
Protesters in Gwagwalada, near the capital Abuja. Plumes of smoke are coming from what appear to be fires used as roadblocks. Video posted to YouTube by Ahmad Batu.
Seun Kuti, son of the late musician Fela Kuti, addresses a crowd of protesters in Lagos on Monday. Photo posted on Twitter by @KathleenNdongmo.
Nigeria’s fuel crisis: 'I’m not sure what I’ll do if prices don’t come down'
Tens of thousands of Nigerians took to the streets Monday over a sharp hike in fuel prices. At least three people were shot dead, and many more were injured throughout the country. Our Observers explain how this sudden rise in the cost of living has disrupted their lives.
Fuel prices have more than doubled since the government decided to end fuel subsidies on January 1. These subsidies, which had kept prices artificially low for two decades, were considered by many Nigerians to be the only benefit they reaped from the country’s oil riches. This increase in the price of fuel sent the cost of food soaring as well, and protests quickly erupted throughout the country. Monday’s general strike, which was called by labour unions, was widely observed, and paralysed much of the country, in particular the commercial capital Lagos.
“Taxi drivers tried to double their fares, but that didn’t work”
Ahammadu Dako owns a small taxi company in Lagos.
My taxi company has four cars, which I hire out to four drivers. They pay for their own fuel. The price for 20 litres of fuel has more than doubled, going from about $8 to $17. At first, the drivers tried to double their fares, but that didn’t work. Nobody could pay that much. So then they tried to bring the fares up 150 percent. That’s not working either. Everything’s all of a sudden gone up, but people’s incomes haven’t, so they just don’t have that kind of money to spend.
The taxi drivers are very worried. They’ve asked me to bring down the cost of renting my cars, but I can’t do that. My business simply wouldn’t be profitable. I’m not sure what I’ll do if the fuel prices don’t come down.
For now, I’ve asked the drivers to stay home. The protests mean all roads are blocked anyway. There are too many people walking on the roads to be able to drive safely. There’s really no point in them going to work.”
“We cannot live in the dark”
Zakari Abubakar works for a food distribution company in Lagos.
My biggest problem right now is buying fuel for my electricity generator. Nearly everybody uses fuel generators here in Nigeria because the electricity goes on and off all the time. I’m one of the lucky ones – it all depends on where you live – and I get 8 to 10 hours of electricity a day. Many poor people get only 2 or 3 hours a day, and depend on their little fuel generators the rest of the time.
Usually, as soon as the lights go off at home, I would turn on my generators.
But I can’t do that anymore. Before I could fill up my generator with 25 litres of fuel for about $11, but now it’s $25! If I turned on my generators, I would go hungry at the end of the month. I have to ration myself. I’m sitting in the dark a lot now. This has to stop - we cannot live in the dark.
The company I work for runs a motorcycle operation, which distributes our products throughout the country. These motorcycles run on fuel. We’re quickly going to exceed our budget and have to enact emergency measures. We’ll have to rework our routes or cut down on them.”
“I’ve spent more in a week than I usually spend in two weeks. I’ve had to cut down on what I eat”
Wumi Ogunleye works at a shopping centre in Lagos.
I’m very worried – I’ve spent more in a week than I usually spend in two weeks. I’ve had to cut down on what I eat, and basically buy only half as much food.
My family hasn’t been able to turn on our electricity generator at all since the prices went up. We just manage with whatever electricity we get, usually from noon to 4 or 5 pm. After that we use candles for light.
I work very far away from where I live, so I’m spending way too much money on transportation. My bus fares used to cost me about $3 a day; now, I spend $5. I already work long hours, so I can’t take on another job. I don’t know what will happen if things don’t go back to the way they were before.”
“Nigerians can stomach nearly anything. Still, I don’t know if we can stomach this”
Seun is works for a humanitarian organisation in Ibadan, about 140 kilometres north of Lagos.
The protests over the fuel subsidies mean I can no longer go to work. I’ve tried, but people block the roads by setting fire to tires and motion for you to turn around. If you insist on going through, they’ll think ‘oh, he’s one of the rich people, he probably works for the government’ – and I don’t want to risk being attacked.
So far my family and I are okay because we stocked the house ahead of the crisis and haven’t had to buy anything yet. When the fuel subsidy removal was announced, I was sure they would be strikes, so I immediately went out and bought water, food, recharge cards for my phone, soap, toiletries, etc. I had bought a large quantity of fuel for our generator a few days before, so I was really lucky. All these things have become very expensive now. But our stock won’t last forever.
Already, people are beginning to adjust to the new realities. Nigerians are resilient, because we are a very poor country. We can stomach nearly anything. Still, I don’t know if we can stomach this. The president says there is no going back, but the labour unions keep saying the fuel subsidy removal must be removed. For now, it seems like neither side is budging.”
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Comments
Democracy or what?
Submitted by Tunji Adeleke on Tue, 10/01/2012 - 15:41....i was just thinking about the real meaning of a democratic system of government and its benefit to a diversified country like Nigeria where exists various economies permeating corruption and institutions manned by intellectuals to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in state crimes. I'm not really bothered about how much the president intended N1B expences on food neither am I interested in the billion he borrows every month since he resumed office. Most surprising to me is the president and the representatives of the people who refuse to see their offices as a call to duty and service to the people but after being elected they become totally enstranged from the wishes and the aspirations of the people that brought them to power. It is becoming anti-intuitive to have confidence in whatever democracy has to offer because what we do know of democracy is the right given to representatives to rule "off" the people, "buy" the people and eventually "force" them as we are experiencing. We suffer not for lack of recources of technical experts, but for lack of management team. we suffer for governemnt's inconsistency and insincerity to her people. We suffer for the greed of few and corrupt practices of the powerful. why on earth were we given a wrong figure of fuel production? why were we meant to believe there was ever a subsidy? why should ever believe democracy and a federal system will work for us? why should we continue to have faith but no work done to ensure diversity in unity ( a confederal system), why should we ask the federal governement to reduce pump price to N65 and not N40? why should the representatives (governors and honourable house of representative) be silent until yesterday about the removal of subsidy that never was?What in earth would make a democratic president trivialize motions passed in the house of representativess? Why should the Nigeria Police Force open fire at peaceful protesters across the nation, leaving some dead and others arrested? If we spend about 70% of our budget on recurrent expenditure and 30% on capital, we need no angel to tell us that those capital projects will soon become recurrent if there is no effective management in place. it is only in Nigeria that you hear of FERMA an agency with best set of engineers repairing roads that were never constructed. when candidates are elected you may never see them again until the next general election, and if they lose they are given another appointment as reward for the people's rejection. Here you find Nigerian police arresting so-called hoodlums in daylight, and drinking alcohol with same at night. In the Niger delta region of Nigeria, you find law enforcement agents breaking Nigerian laws because He's an excort to a whiteman. Nigeria you find power generator running in PHCN offices and people paying power bills for light they wouldn't see for months, and if you refuse to pay, hired thugs will conpel you. Some said, Nigeria is down a group of signs and symptoms that together are characteristic of a failed state.
subsidy removal,inimical for nigeria economic growth/
Submitted by vincent oboite (not verified) on Tue, 10/01/2012 - 09:32.the removal of oil subsidy,by goodluck jonathan is not economically,wise.because it affect the common masses negatively.
Fuel subsidy
Submitted by Jamiu ola (not verified) on Mon, 09/01/2012 - 23:54.We Nigerians understand the reason of fuel subsidy removal bt the problem is are they going 2 make life more meaningful 4 the citizens,cos at the end of the day nothing good will comeout of it,with our past experience our leaders always mismanage the country's resources 4 their selfish interest,moreover subsidy or not subsidy,this is nt the right time for this when some innocent nigerians are dieing day by day,our government is yet to rise up to our aid,but if it is money issue they'll surely show up,they cant just do us good.
Fuel subsidy in Nigeria
Submitted by South African Citizen (not verified) on Tue, 10/01/2012 - 13:09.I think the government dont think about his people in Nigeria only thing about feeding their pocket and less concern, about the lives of people in thier country. The government need to speed up the process and may-be get help to other country before they can loose lots of people. 1. Why was this issue of rising of the fuel was not communicated in the right way in the country and get peoples views unlike just rising the fuel prices I should think it is very unfair. At the end of the day they will need votes from this people wheres they dont take care of them.
I think the government need to engage other foreign country and get different view, than takin decision on its own.
They must remember there are people who stay outside the country who need to go back and they can't go back after holidays because of the strike, they can't even use buses. My suggestion why can't the government put this rise fuel on hold and put everything back to normal and may-be seek help to united nations they should come up with something other than leting people dying like this. Who ever is a president in that country need to have a contigency planning for such things and avoid such situation in his country because that country can be like Zimbabwe.
The subsidy removal will
Submitted by Biafran Youth Movement (BYM) (not verified) on Tue, 10/01/2012 - 09:11.The subsidy removal will bring a postive change to Nigeria economy. The main problem is left behind and idiots are on the street protesting for subsidy removal leaving the havoc the Northern Muslins are comitting in the name of Boko Haram.Northern Nigeria will still experience !!!! Boko Haram? Has there ever been a riot in the North that didn't claim Igbo lives? call it Sharia riot, Miss World riot, Afghanistan invasion riot, Iraq invasion riot, Jos riot, Election riot. My parent's generation faught a civil war because of the killings of Igbo in the North, the result was the biggest genocide Africa has ever known, bigger that Rwandan genocide. Still today we're still being killed. We habour people from the North and other parts safely in Igboland because life is sacred to us. Right now, I have two Muslims living safely in my house. But is that the same when we come to your place? Let's tell ourselves the gospet truth. This matter has been swept undet the rug for too long. We are a hated and despised people in this country yet very peace loving.