Public transportation can be stressful; at times, it is always annoying due to certain factors, such as bad roads and high transportation fees. I live in a state that is considered the north central part of Nigeria. Here, in Kwara State, we don't experience traffic; the roads are always free for everyone to drive, but there are a few bad roads in some areas, though not everywhere. There are areas here in my state that you will be willing to drive to every day because of the good roads and the serenity of the environment.
Image is mine
The major challenge with transportation where I live is the high cost of transportation fees, and this is the result of the high cost of petroleum. In my area, a liter of petrol is sold at #800, #850, #900, and #950, respectively, depending on the filling station you chose to buy from. My residence is a bit far from the town, so to speak, I had to board a bus, sometimes two buses, before getting to wherever I wanted to go. A few years ago, a bus from where I live to a central place known as the post office in Kwara state was just #70. Later, as things began to change, it was changed to #100, gradually to #150, and now it's #300, sometimes #400.
A place that I would go with just #200 before is no longer possible; I have to go with a thousand naira or more to be on the safer side. This is how bad it has gotten presently. Before stepping out of my house, I have to think twice and calculate my transportation fee carefully in order not to be stranded. These days, money determines my going out; I don't go out unnecessarily; if it's not work, church, or market, I don't go out of my house. Presently, I'm on holiday in school, but something came up recently, and I had to go to school to submit some of my documents, and transportation alone costs #2,000; that's excluding some other payments I will make in school.
When the subsidy on petroleum was removed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we all thought it would be a new era where petroleum would be cheap and also make available from time to time, but the reverse is the case. Since the removal of the subsidy, there has been an increase in the price of petroleum as well as scarcity. Yesterday, while coming back from church, I had to stop at a petrol station to buy petrol to fuel the generator because the power supply is always bad at night. I had to queue to buy a fuel of #900 per liter, with people still pushing and fighting one another over who came first or not.
Traffic and bad roads are not issues where I live; only a few potholes make the road bad, and that is always filled from time to time by the good samaritans. The solution to this potholes is just a little patch to cover the holes before it becomes deeper but the government is not bothered about that, and that's not an individual jobs to do but then we will keep managing the little care done to it by the good people who saw the need be to cover the holes.
The only solution for public transportation where I live is if there is a reduction in the price of petroleum. Probably if the price of gasoline can go back to #65 just as it was in the time of former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. The transportation fee will be back to how it was a few years ago. Without that, one will continue to manage resources when it comes to boarding public transport just to cut costs.
Thanks for your time, and your comments will be appreciated.
