As primary and secondary schools resumed for the 2024/2025 academic session yesterday in Lagos and other states of the country, parents are groaning over the high cost of transportation.
This is even as businessmen and entrepreneurs were complaining of hike in transportation which is increasing production cost, saying, this may be transferred to the final consumers,
A mother of three, Agnes Ndubusi, stated that the hardship and high cost of living in a Lagos suburb is unbearable as she had to dig into her savings.
She bared her mind to our correspondent that she may have to withdraw her first child and others from their schools as it was difficult getting a bus within her budget to her children’s schools because the transport cost has doubled, even as the struggle of school fees payment is poking her in the face.
“I am in a state of dilemma right now as motorists have jerked up the fares this Monday as I tried taking my three children to their schools. The driver charged five hundred naira per person from Ojota to Ikeja where my children are schooling as we just relocated to Ketu, a suburb of Lagos. It is disheartening that this fuel increase is affecting the middle income earners as everything will go up now; the cost of food, groceries stationeries and all that. I may have to withdraw my children from the two schools as it is a distance from our new residence.
“Spending two thousand naira just to take students to their schools is a big concern. Can’t the government help us and reverse the fuel price? This hardship is biting harder!” says Ndubusi.
A young lady, Aishat Abbas also weighed in on the high cost of transportation from her residence to place of assignment, saying, the price public transport owners have placed on conveying passengers from point A to point B is exorbitant and will affect pedestrians and motorists in Lagos.
Aishat, an undergraduate who is undergoing internship, stated that she had to leave her residence early so as to catch up with early morning vehicles who charge lower. “This is a nightmare for us,’’says Aishat. ‘We’re already stretched thin and this increase is pushing us over the edge. This is a crisis situation, and we need immediate action from our leaders,
‘’Many parents are now forced to make difficult choices between paying for transportation and other essential expenses like food and rent.”
Nollywood Actress Oma Nnadi has also come out to question the prices of goods and services. The actress wrote on her instagram story about the prices of goods while lamenting why Nigerians aren’t doing anything about it, ‘‘This increase in prices of goods and services is really much, I don’t understand how we are coping, it is really much, why is nobody talking?” said actress Oma Nnadi.
Also a businessman, Joseph Fakunke lamented on the rise in operating cost that has eaten deep into his resources as an entrepreneur.
The businessman noted that he had to spend far more to operate his business centre as the hike in fuel price has brought untold hardship to him and his firm, begging the government and agencies to instruct the fuel stations to revert back to the old fuel price.
