Olamode Bello &
Daniel Oladele
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Barely eight days to the 2023 general elections, Nigerians have expressed displeasure with the turnout of events in the country.
Their displeasure bothers on unending fuel and naira scarcity and its effects on common man.
The citizens lamented that the scarcity was a deliberate attempt to push them into avoidable hardship.
Speaking with The Hope, Mrs Veronica Daniel said Nigerians are living in penury despite having abundant resources .
“Many people have died because of this, we can’t even travel from one place to another because of fuel and we said we have government”.
While sharing ger experiences in bank, she said people struggle to withdraw their money which makes it so difficult for citizens to get their money.
She also lamented extortion in the hands of POS operators, whose charges are outrageous.
“Our money does not have value like before. Back then, if you have N500 you will know that you have money but now N1,000 is like N5. Some years ago, we used to buy a bag of rice N15,000 but now, it is up to N40,000, she complained.
Also, Mrs. Omolara Adebayo lamented epileptic power supply in addition to fuel and naira scarcity.
She said the country has failed to have power supply consistently for a year, whereas countries like Ghana have constant power supply.
“Election is forthcoming but everybody is suffering from hike in petroleum price which increased from N145 last year to N400 per litre”.
For Mrs. Mary kolawole, Nigeria is at ‘war’. According to her, some citizens that have vehicles are suffering because of fuel.
“Some are fighting in the bank because some of them use their last cash for transport fare to the bank and their families are at home waiting for them to bring money so that they could buy food and pay school fees.
“POS operators have also increased their charges outrageously, withdrawing N1000 with a service charge of N300.
“There is no money to pay school fees, even some workers don’t know how to get to their office because cash is unavailable in the country,”. she complained.
In the same vein, Mr. Adeyinka Ismail, who is into meat selling, said power outage in his environment affected his business as he ran the business on losses.
As regards naira crunch in the country, he said he has switched to online transaction to keep his business running.
Mrs Ajuyemi Folashade who is a trader also said “in Nigeria today, everything has changed. Everybody is barely managing what they have.
Amidst protests in some states, President Muhammad Buhari has ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria to recirculate the old N200 notes to cushion naira scarcity in the country.
