Carless Nigerians scampering to recover aspects of their lives abruptly crushed by the COVID-19 outbreak are trudging towards a breaking point from transport operators burdening them with toxic fares.
Commuting has both been extra difficult and financially burdensome, particularly for people who rely on the services of commercial transporters, due to COVID-19 restrictions throttling transport.
In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, cash-strapped commuters pay more, wait longer. The fares have been sharply hiked for many whose businesses were shut for over a month, and those already battered by job losses, salary cuts and interim unemployment.
Under the guise of complying with the physical distancing rule by the Lagos State government, which mandates 60 percent loading capacity in public buses, transporters are subjecting commuters to a hike as elevated as 400 percent above the pre-coronavirus era. The cost of seats left vacant by the physical distancing measure is being shoved down the throat of commuters.
Even with the drop in petrol price, the fares paid by passengers for bus journey within cities rose 1.89 percent to N206.73 in March from N202.89 in February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Transport Fare Watch Report for March 2020.
In 2019, the combined cost of transportation, food consumed outside the home and starchy roots, tubers and plantain led the largest proportion of total household expenditure at 24.16 percent, NBS consumption expenditure pattern data released May 2020 indicate.
For residents of urban centres like Lagos, transportation cost singularly accounted for 15. 22 percent of non-food expenditure and 7.38 percent of total expenditure, unlike their counterparts in the rural areas who spent 14.44 percent and 5.59 percent, respectively.
Rukayat Badmos, a sales representative at one of the big fabric stores at Balogun Market, Idumota-Lagos, didn’t receive her less-than-N30,000 salary for April since her employer could not operate under the month-long lockdown that required non-essential service providers to shut business.
But as the lockdown eased early in May, she was slammed with N500 fare from Mushin to Idumota and N1,000 back to Mushin without a choice. Prior to the novel coronavirus outbreak, the fare ranged between N250 and N300 during peak hours.
“Working these days is unprofitable because I barely have anything substantial left after deducting transportation and feeding costs. But I can’t afford to stay at home either, doing nothing,” Badmos groaned.
Despite this killing rate, Badmos is constantly denied the opportunity to grab a seat unruffled due to fierce competition from other desperate commuters. Sometimes, physical distancing is wholly thrown out the window with the seating arrangement.
There is often no provision for hand-washing, nor do the drivers provide hand sanitisers in the vehicles.
Operators’ justification for the harsh hike is that they’ve been unable to operate at full capacity and that daily dues charged by the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has rather increased, leaving commuters to bear the full brunt of a set of rules meant to protect everyone including drivers and conductors.
The situation has had operators smiling to the bank anyways, while people with no means choke without respite.
Speaking with BusinessDay in a phone conversation, Jimoh Buhari, personal assistant to Musiliu Akinsanya, chairman, NURTW Lagos chapter, admitted that a lot of misgivings has been going on unabated but objected it was the sole doing of the transport union members.
He accused operators outside the union’s auspices of fare hike and overloading, and officers of Nigerian Police and Nigerian Army for enabling many drivers.
“I don’t want to argue or say you are lying, but we can only try our best. Some of them don’t even load from the park but roadside. They are the ones hiking fares. The chairman has set up a task force on COVID-19 in all our three senatorial districts. He even rolled out numbers that the public can call to complain and about 40 violators have been caught,” he explained.
When Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State governor, began to ease the lockdown, part of the proactive measures to pare the risk of contagion was to dwarf the capacity of public transport system.
He mandated that all buses be loaded only to a maximum of 60 percent of full capacity. That implies that the common Volkswagen buses that previously accommodated 14 passengers would allow not more than 8.4 persons to board for now.
“All operators are expected to have alcohol-based sanitisers in their vehicles for drivers, conductors and passengers. All motor parks and garages must avoid overcrowding. Social distancing is required for passengers queuing up to board buses,” Sanwo-Olu said in a speech.
This framework of orderliness has, however, been operative almost only at the various state-run parks of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), where fares remain unchanged and 21 passengers are conveyed as against the regular 70.
But while that decline in capacity has proven effective in breaking the chain of COVID-19 transmission, the unintended consequence has left many helpless Nigerians as preys in the hand of exploitative operators.
Most BRT parks are frequently mapped with long queues of people willing to suffer biting heat from the Lagos baking sun for a cheaper ride.
Last Monday, Temitope Onakoya queued for eight hours at the BRT Park in Ikorodu to get a N300 ride to Oshodi. The Ordinary National Diploma (OND)-qualified lady scouting for a job couldn’t afford the N1,000 charged by buses other than BRT.
“If not for a man that gave up his ticket because the time needed to get to destination had elapsed, I wouldn’t have boarded the bus. I got there at about 7am and didn’t reach my turn until a few minutes before 3 pm – their closing time. Transporters are making life difficult for people,” she explained.
There are signs the situation could worsen with the decision of Primero Transport Services Ltd, operator of BRT, to limit the number of buses available. The decision is due to its lack of means to manage the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on its loading capacity and dwindling revenue, the company said via its official Twitter handle May 14.
As the easing of the lockdown progresses, many are hoping that the fares are at least halved to ease their path to recovery.
