PUNCH
Many households in the country are coming up with new strategies to survive the difficult times occasioned by the removal of subsidy on petrol and rising inflation, which peaked at an 18-year high of 22.41 per cent in May amidst weakening purchasing power.
Some of the strategies include cutting down significantly on luxury items; many households coming together to buy foodstuffs in bulk, some making their purchases from rural areas, where they are relatively cheaper; cutting down on energy consumption; and looking for different means to supplement family income, among others.
President Bola Tinubu had on Monday, May 29, 2023, announced shortly after his inauguration that the era of subsidising petrol consumption was gone. This was immediately followed by marketers increasing the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit to N500 per litre from around N185.
The increase in the pump price of the commodity led to sharp rises in transport fares and the prices of most commodities and services.
The removal of subsidy and the attendant escalating prices forced the organised labour to issue a strike notice, but after a series of meetings with officials of the Federal Government, the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress announced the suspension of the strike to allow for the government to come up with appropriate palliatives to cushion the effects, including wage increase for workers.
Negotiations between the government and organised labour on the development continue next week.
Some residents of the Lekki area of Lagos State lamented the surge in the cost of living in the country and pointed out that the areas most affected were transportation and feeding.
They have also adopted diverse coping mechanisms with the new reality in the country.
Emmanuel Adetunji, a businessman, told Saturday PUNCH that his wife was now buying foodstuffs in bulk from the Mile 12 Market, as it was more expensive to buy such from the Island.
He said, “We no longer buy food items on the Island. My wife sends someone to Mile 12 monthly to buy food items for the house. It is more economical for us.
“Also, in terms of power, we switch to the inverter during the day, whether or not there’s light, and turn off the prepaid meter and avoid the use of the generator. We only use the generator if it is inevitable or the inverter batteries are running low.”
Adetunji said he was considering selling his two-horse-power air conditioners and replacing them with 1HP in order to burn less fuel.
“We no longer switch on air conditioners during the day; I got rechargeable fans for every room,” he added.
For Dupe Gbolahan, her family has since switched to renewable energy and replaced the generator with solar panels.
She said with solar panels and inverters, her family had been able to cope better since the fuel subsidy removal.
Gbolahan stated, “At least, we know that it is only the cars we are fuelling and my work is remote, so I only go out when necessary.
“We were lucky to get our solar panels late last year, when the price was still fair. Now, I learnt that the prices have increased because more people are rushing to get them since the subsidy removal.
“We have a big generator but we hardly use it; instead, we use our solar panels and an inverter. That has been our saving grace.”
When one of our correspondents contacted a company that sells inverters and solar panels in Lagos, a representative who did not want his name mentioned, confirmed that since subsidy was removed on petrol, the demand for solar panels and batteries had increased.
He said, “The demand for solar panels increased during the fuel scarcity, but since the subsidy removal it has doubled.
“Renewable energy is the new trend with the state of things in the country. It is the only way people can cope now.”
A resident of Gateway Sparklight Estate, Magboro, Ogun State, Christiana Ilemobayo, said the past one month had been tough for her family as the available income was not adequate to meet the needs of members of the household.
Ilemobayo stated, “My husband is the breadwinner of the family and had been complaining that his income was inadequate to meet our needs before the fuel subsidy was removed. Our eldest child is in a private university and we have two sons in private secondary schools; my husband has been responsible for their schooling and taking care of the family. I earn less than N45,000 monthly as a private school teacher.
“Since the fuel subsidy removal, my husband has been moody and always complaining of inadequate funds; I pray every day that he won’t enter into depression and that we won’t have any health crisis. My youngest son’s school just wrote to us that the bus fare has increased by N10,000 for the current term and I know that school fees will increase by next session.
“What I now do is to beg my sister-in-law, who lives in the Moniya area of Ibadan to help us buy foodstuffs like garri, yam flour, yam, smoked fish and others, and package them and send them through commercial bus drivers for a token. This has led to some savings. I also partner with friends to buy a whole ram and share the meat as well as frozen fish in packs for sharing. I have also reduced the heavy meal to just dinner.”
A retired public servant in the Isolo area of Lagos, Mr Gabriel Olohunwa, said he was discussing with the parents of some schoolchildren in his neighbourhood so that he could be picking the pupils from their respective homes and dropping them in schools and returning them home in the evening for a token in order to supplement his pension and the little coming in from his building materials shop, adding that it would be a win-win situation for him and the parents as he would not charge as much as the school buses.
A local government worker in Ila Orangun, Osun State, Ismaila Adepoju, said he would expand his farming venture the next planting season so as to make extra income from the produce, but was fencing his compound now to turn the land not yet built into a vegetable garden and hopes to sell the vegetables to residents.
Similarly, a civil servant in Ilorin, Kwara State, Taofeek Lawal, said he would fully utilise the opportunity given by the state government for civil servants to work for only three days in a week to focus on his farming and trading activities.
A security guard in Igbo-Efon, Lekki, Jafaru Ibrahim, said he usually visits the Eti-Osa Local Government Secretariat during the day after his boss must have gone to work to raise extra cash.
Ibrahim said, “I am being paid N40,000 monthly as salary and that is barely enough to cater for myself in this economy as well as my two wives back home in the North and my children.
“I have to send money to them monthly; that is why I come here during the day to wash cars for people who visit the secretariat in order to raise extra cash. I am also considering sending one of my wives back to her parents, because I can’t cope again.”
A banker, Chisom Okere, who visited the local government office to get her National Identification Number sorted, said the cost of living had put her family on the “hot seat.”
She said, “The areas most affected by this subsidy removal are transportation and feeding. The prices of things have risen astronomically and it is almost unbearable for the ordinary citizen.
“We now ration food portions in my house and manage our resources. About half of my salary goes for transportation and nobody is increasing salaries. The country is hot now.”
At the Oworonshoki bus park, commuters were saddened by the recent hike in transport fares, but many said they had no choice but to cope with the situation.
