Subsidy: ‘I Spent Eight Days Looking For Passengers In Abuja Because People No Longer Travel’–Commercial Driver Laments

Emenike Eze, a commercial driver working for a mega transport company in Nigeria, Tuesday, narrated how the high cost of transport fare has brought untold hardship to him and his family.

Eze, who plies Enugu-Abuja routes, said he left his family at Abakpa eight days ago for Abuja, and was stranded in the park of his company for seven days. According to him, the removal of fuel subsidy led to increases in transport fares, and ‘many people don’t travel again’.

He told our correspondent that, “I was at our Zuba park for seven days, starving. The truth is that many people don’t travel again. A trip from Abuja to Enugu was before the fuel price increase around N5,000.

“It is presently N13, 000 and above, depending on the company. Many now choose to use telephones to hold meetings which they should have ordinarily travelled for. Others choose waybills instead of travelling physically. Commercial drivers suffer a lot.”

He said he spent eight days in Abuja because there were no passengers. “The rule is that we load in turns,” Emenike narrated. “If it is not your turn, there is nothing one can do. At a time, we were begging drivers that loaded to give us any amount to buy food. We sleep inside buses, with mosquitoes biting us. It is terrible because we have families to feed.”

He said he was considering quitting as a driver because of the present situation.

According to him, “I am a tailor. I need to undergo some refresher training to start the tailoring. It is better for me. I see no future in driving under the present circumstances. As a tailor, I will be with my family, and in one place instead of being on highways all the time with nothing to show for it.”