• President Tinubu removed fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023, increasing the fuel price to over 400%
• Nigerians abandon their cars, resort to motorbikes as price hike bites harder
• PENGASSAN, NUPENG express worry as fuel consumption drops significantly

This is certainly not the best of time for both commercial and private vehicle owners in Nigeria as the high cost of petrol has literally fuelled the skyrocketing cost of living in the country.

Recall that on May 29, 2023, the new Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during his swearing-in speech removed fuel subsidy, thereby throwing the entire country’s economy into hyperinflation. Since then, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, has consistently continued to make an upward adjustment in the pump price of the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS popularly known as petrol.

However, WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that most vehicle owners have resorted to use of motorbike instead of car due largely to the high cost of petrol. In the same vein, most parents have also adopted cost-effective method of transportation on their children who go to far-from-home schools, during the resumption of the 2024/2025 academic year in September 2024.

Such parents have changed their children’s schools to near-home schools to save cost of transportation which has doubled in recent time.

In any case, when our reporter visited Nsukka mechanic village, Enugu state on Saturday, most of the car repairers were seen idling away their time.

One of them, Mr. Frederick Ujah who spoke to our reporter lamented low level of work in recent time.

“Since this year, I have not seen this kind of hardship in my life. I have been in this work for close to twelve years but I have not experienced this kind of low patronage of business in my life.”

Lamenting further, Mr. Ujah told WITHIN NIGERIA that “imagine a situation whereby so many car owners abandon their car for motorbike. Some of them even abandon their cars in my workshop, telling me that they cannot maintain those cars. This is because their spare parts are now out of reach just as petroleum price has skyrocketed.”

In any case, our reporter visited a spare parts dealer at Nsukka market village, it was discovered that none of the spare parts has a specific price tag. One of the dealers who spoke to WITHIN NIGERIA explained that “right now, all these spare parts have no price. Before we tell you the price, we must consult our supplier or suppliers in Nnewi or Onitsha to tell us the current price. We don’t just sell goods like that so as to avoid selling before cost price.”

Explaining further, the dealer narrated that “price changes every hour these days. For instance, you can buy something at N5,000 this afternoon, but before 5pm, the price has changed to say N5300. It keeps on changing like that every day. The worst is that there is no hope of the situation getting better. We are living in a situation of uncertainty. You may sell an item at say N20,000 today. When you want to buy it back by next, the price will be N22,000. So, this is the situation in which we have unfortunately found ourselves in.”

By and large, another seller told our reporter that “right now, we are confused as to either to sell our wares or to wait a bit before selling them. This is because when you finish selling your wares say at N15,000 each, you can never buy them at N17,000. This has been the lot of Nigerians for months now.”

Petroleum sellers experience low sale

In November 2024, it was reported that the latest data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMPDRA) put nationwide fuel consumption at 4.5 million litres per day in August 2024.

The figure represents a significant drop from 60 million litres per day in May 2023, a staggering 92% decline.

According to the data, only 16 out of the 36 states received fuel from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited in August, leading to widespread shortage.

The report further explained that fuel prices have been rising at an exponential rate since President Bola Tinubu came to office in 2023.

The continuous price increases have further stifled the already battered economy, driving up the cost of food and transportation, and fuelling inflation to a three-decade high.

The situation has plunged many Nigerians into chronic hardship as lamentation becomes the order of the day.

However, a report by a French news agency also detailed how Nigerians have been forced to abandon their vehicles, opting instead for public transportation as the hardship permeates every strata of the nation.

Oil marketers raise the alarm

The national leadership of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) lamented that the drop in petrol consumption had caused its members huge losses, adding that 10,000 of them were on the verge of closing shop.

The PETROAN National Public Relations Officer, Dr Joseph Obele, said the cost of loading a truck of fuel had risen from ₦7m to ₦47m in the last 16 months.

“Three days ago, there was a meeting at the national headquarters of PETROAN. At the meeting, there was, an indication that about 10,000 of our members would quit the business in the next 45 days because their trading capital had been severely affected,” Obele told newsmen.

He also warned of the potential job losses as the affected marketers had a combined total staff strength of about one million.

“That was why we wrote a letter to Mr President, dated October 21, requesting a grant of N100bn to save the affected marketers’ businesses from shutting down in the next few weeks,” the PETROAN spokesman added.

For his part, the President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Maigandi, also confirmed the massive reduction in fuel consumption, adding that members of the union were equally affected.

“There is a drop in consumption and the price of a truckload is higher now. So, we have reduced the quantity of fuel we buy. For instance, someone who bought 10 trucks before can only buy eight now. So, we haven’t been getting the right quantity that we are supposed to get. We sell only the little quantities we get,” he said.

PENGASSAN reacts to the ugly situation

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (PENGASSAN) stated that the inability of the oil marketers to buy products had resulted in job losses for truck drivers and petrol station workers in the country.

“The economy is not smiling at all. Many petrol station owners cannot even buy a single truckload, and this has affected our members. Those of them that are truck drivers hardly get loads to carry anymore. Many petrol stations have closed down and our members who are petrol station workers have lost their jobs,” NUPENG Secretary-General, Afolabi Olawale told the platform.

Asked to state the actual number of NUPENG members affected, Olawale said, “This is an unfolding situation. It’s evolving, so I may not be able to give you the actual number of people affected now because we have those in the informal and formal sectors. We have people in the upstream, downstream, and midstream. But I don’t have the statistics right here with me to give you.

“Though everybody is affected, those in the downstream are the most affected. It affects those in the downstream sector directly because they are truck drivers, station workers, and the representatives of the marketers at different depots.”