By Sam Kayode
Commuters in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, have abandoned petrol filling stations as the cost of product hits N575 per litre even at NNPC retail shops.
For the first time in the history of sales of premium motor spirit (PMS) also known as petrol, dealers and station managers still have old stock with customers shying away from them.
And this is because regardless of the new prices due to the removal of the subsidy, most residents are sticking to their old budgets by buying only what will not cripple them financially or eat up the money for house keeping.
A drive round the metropolis indicated that the long queues have disappeared while very few cars were seen at NNPC retail station Ngomari Airport and even Gumalti filling station which used to have a fairly low price compared to its competitors in Bulunkutu or pompomari bypass.
For commercial tricycles which are used to buy the product for as high as N650 per litre, they have rather resolved to abandon their regular visits to the black market for regular filing stations where it’s N100 naira cheaper without long queues.
As a result, the booming black market in the metropolis is beginning to collapse in areas with enough retail centres except for extremely rural outskirts of Jere, Konduga and beyond that black market is a must.
Many residents including civil servants affected by the hike of the product have resolved to either trek to work or wait for the Borno express buses which charge only N50 naira per bus stop because it is highly subsidized by the government.
Some of those who have cars that spoke to this reporter on their ordeal, drive them alternatively to work or just abandon same at home and use only when necessary with a top up of 5 or 10 litres instead of full tank.
“Car usage now has become only necessary to drop my kids in school and pick them up later in the day”, said pharmacist Kachalla who runs a retail pharmacy shop in Maiduguri.
As for the residents generally especially market sellers, the new fair of the commercial tricycles also known as keke NAPEP are cut throat “We have no choice but to transfer the price to our products.
“But because of the insurgency, which is still biting our land, we cannot increase up to 50 percent for now. We are transferring the costs to our goods with a human face.
“This is because I sell perishable product like tomatoes, onions and potatoes. Too much increase may harm and scare our people away and we don’t want to have to throw the products away”, said Mallam Usman on Baga road.
A top government official, who wanted anonymity, said he was going through hell paying the transportation for his three daughters schooling at University of Maiduguri: “You can’t believe it, I give my daughters N1000 each from this 1000 housing estate here to University of Maiduguri where they are studying on a daily basis”.
With the calling off of the strike by the organized labor, most professional bodies are waiting patiently to see how the promised palliatives would be channeled
“Either through the executive of the unions or through the salaries of each individual worker using an organized channel if the beneficiary is a non governmental person”, said the top government official.