The taste of the pudding, an adage has it, is in the eating.

Many well-meaning Nigerians were clamouring for the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), famous in Nigeria as petrol, because the subsidy regime was laced with corruption, while enriching few privileged and unscrupulous business people.

Efforts by several successive governments, including military regimes, could not summon enough courage to put an end to the menace. Why? It was always met with stiff resistance from the masses.

The fear of mass revolt and resistance discouraged several governments from taking the bull by the horn, despite counsel from well-informed and well-meaning individuals and organisations, including the World Bank.

However, the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has bitten the bullet.

The date, May 29 has come to be known in Nigeria as democracy day.

However, when President Tinubu welcomed himself to office on May 29, 2023 with the stern announcement ‘subsidy is gone’, the day transformed into the day hardship was born to many people.

It was first greeted with confusion, which saw several filling stations shutdown; then an adjustment of the pump prices of petrol from N180 to N490 per litre in the Lagos area.

The removal of subsidy also saw marketers selling at different prices in different parts of Nigeria, with prices per litre, ranging from N490 to N750.

The signal, meant a new day, indeed a day of adversity to many Nigerians. But it appears that the people are confronting the demon with tenets in Robert H Schuller’s bestseller, “Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do”.

All over the world, Nigerians are famous for courage and their ‘can do spirit’. So it appears that with the shock, Nigerians quickly swung to survival modes.

Consequently, the unveiling of tough times by President Tinubu has seen Nigerians mutate to their tough sides. After all, life must go on.

How People in the Lagos Area Are Adapting
In the Lagos area, the working class have resorted to hibernating, rotation, trekking, skipping meals, cooking at the office, two-or-three-day working week, remote working, e-trading, among others, to keep themselves going.

An administrative manager with a manufacturing concern in the Ikeja area of Lagos State, Elendu Uwarue, lives in Gowon Estate, Ipaja.

He copes with the subsidy removal which has seen transportation cost from his house to office move from N800 to N2500 per day by hibernating.

He said, “I commute twice a week, Mondays and Fridays. I leave for the office very early, so that I can join those who hustle with their private cars at affordable rates on Monday.

“I hibernate at the office till Friday when I also make sure that I leave late to ensure that I don’t spend too much on transportation.”

In a related situation, a banker, Tosin Olaito, informed Biztellers that in her department, they have fallen back to survival instincts and resorted to rotation.

What this means according to Olaito, is that, not everyone has to be physically on duty every day.

A department of 10 people can opt to have three or four people on seat to take on the day’s tasks. Others can support remotely.

For those who have been wondering why several banking halls are sparsely populated by employees, this might be one of the reasons.

“We agree among ourselves who should be physically present and who can be sending in in-swingers. On the day you’re to support from your location, you will quickly go the branch nearest to your house and sign-in, and you’re good to go,” she said.

Transporters Lament

Biztellers reports that transporters are lamenting because the prevailing economic situation does not permit them to adjust charges to cover escalating costs from the subsidy removal.

A transporter, Segun Olawuyi, took to his Facebook page to lament that while cost of petrol, a major input for the business has gone up by over 300 percent, they are only able to increase charges by 50-100 percent in some cases.

Olawuyi wrote, “This is not a good time for transport business. Imagine paying three times what you used to, for petrol only to charge about 100 percent what you used to.”

Biztellers’ investigations revealed that fares have increased, albeit marginally in some cases. There are some extreme cases where no increase has been recorded at all.

For instance, a shuttle within the Ikeja business district used to be N100 per trip in commercial buses, say from Ikeja under-bridge to Alausa-Secretariat-Express. But it has increased to N150 per trip.

Another transporter, Olopo Andy told Biztellers that they had to reduce the fare from N200 to N150 when they noticed that majority of the people turned to ‘legging it’ instead of riding in the buses.

“Oga na leggedes be king now o. Since (President) Tinubu enter, na so, so trek people dey trek o. We no dey see passenger carry again,” he lamented.

Biztellers observed that several people were trekking the estimated four-six-kilometer distance between Express-Ikeja-Along through Awolowo Road to Express-Alausa area.

Walking long distances to and from work, business locations and other places has become increasingly popular with the people having no choice.

Some people have been asserting, albeit jokingly that those trekking in Nigeria because of hardship would soon earn her a world record in the Guinness World Records (GWR).

General impact

The greatest impact of the fuel subsidy removal might yet be in the in the mounting angst among the populace. Everything imaginable has seen their prices jumped through the roof, including foodstuffs. This has left the populace irritable.

People are lamenting everywhere about economic hardship. The public outcry doesn’t seem to be heading anywhere near the ears of those in power with fears becoming palpable that any little thing can ignite public outrage of uncontrollable measures.

However, a public affairs analyst, Charles Ikewe told Biztellers that it doesn’t all have to do with the subsidy.

“There was hardship before President Tinubu was sworn in,” he started. “What is evident,” he continued, “is that things have gone from bad to worse, which the masses can longer bear.”

He traced it to previous governments who could not make bold and timely policy pronouncements.

The cumulative result from Ikewe’s perspective might be best expressed in the words of a former American President, Abraham Lincoln, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

As things stand, the removal of subsidy on petrol has enthroned ‘leggedess’ as king of Nigerian roads, but only time will tell how long it would be and how the people react to it.