As the Nigerian economy bites harder following policies introduced by the Bola Tinubu administration, automobile mechanics have described the development as “worrisome,” saying they are the worst affected.
To them, the subsidy removal, which skyrock-
eted the pump price of the premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol has forced alot of car owners to park or sell their cars, thereby making their repair work difficult.
According to the 2020 report of the Nigerian
Bureau of Statistics, there are about 11.5 million vehicles in the country and about 500,000 vehicle mechanics maintaining those vehicles.
Narrating their ordeal when this corre- spondent visited their workshops in Kaduna,
Northwest Nigeria, the automobile mechanics who specialise in Mercedes, Toyota, Honda and Peugeot car brands blamed the sharp adjustment in pump prices which led to the inability of many people to put their cars on the road.
Mr. Samuel Joseph, who repairs Mercedes
and Toyota cars, said his job is being threatened by the harsh economy the country has faced in recent times. He said: “Honestly, we, the mechanics, are the worst hit by the fuel subsidy removal. This is because most of our clients have parked their cars at home and now use public transport to move about.
“And it is common knowledge that so far you
don’t make use of the car, you may not have to fix anything on it. We are feeling the heat. Things are costly now. The cost of living now is very high whereas the income keeps going down. “We understand that our clients too don’t have enough to pay for the services we render here because most of them are civil servants. We are just managing one another and that is the few ones among them that are still using their cars.
“You can look around, we have a lot of aban-
doned cars here. Some of these cars have been here for months. These are the cars we ought to have fixed within a day or two.
“Now, this is the most expensive quarter of
the year for all of irrespective of what you do. In this quarter, you have to pay children’s school fees, buy books and all that. To some, repairing a car is a secondary matter at least for now.
“From what we have seen, the government in
this part of the world does not consider artisans like us in their plans even with our massive presence all over the country. They only consider civil servants working under them as if we are foreigners.
“You can imagine the idea of giving the state
governors N5 billion each for palliative. As
artisans, how will that benefit us? It is just like dashing them the money. “It would have been better if we fix our roads and put a mass transit system in place with such
money. For example, if someone like me who
comes from a bit distant place can get cheap
transport that will not cost more than N200, that would be okay by me.
“Again, that money would have been used to
also put our health facilities in good condition. If they give me a bag of rice today, the longest it will take will be one month. The question is after that, what next?
“Some of our children travel several kilo-
metres to school where we pay about N1,000 every day for their transportation. So, if the
government can be sincere on the transport
system, that will be great.”
As far as Mr. Oseni Inuwa is concerned,
he and his colleagues are not happy with the
economic policies of Tinubu. He said: “We are not happy with this present economic situation at all. In truth, we are not enjoying it. We are among those Nigerians that the government doesn’t care about despite helping the government by finding what we
can do with our hands rather than depending on the govern- ment for jobs.
“I’ve been here for about 10 years but we never have it this bad in those years. Many people have abandoned their cars whether at home, offce, or even mechanic workshops.
“As a mechanic myself, I have parked my car because I can no longer afford to buy the fuel
because there are no customers. Sometimes, you may not touch a car for one week and when you do, people are not ready to pay
well for the service rendered.
“Sometimes, after you have examined the cars and discovered the faults in them, the
owners will tell you to fix them back because they don’t have money to buy spare parts. This is where we are.
“We are appealing to our government at all levels to listen to what people at the grassroots are saying. People are seriously
suffering. We don’t have the opportunity to go and meet our leaders one-on-one but they
must hear us. The suffering is so much.”
On his part, public rela- tions offcer, National Me- chanical Association of Nigeria, Mogadishu Unit, Kaduna, Mr. Emeka Chimma, appealed to the Federal Government to do something about the pump price of fuel.
“Let me be honest with you, the economy is so bad. The situ- ation we fnd ourselves in now, most especially we, the artisans, is so terrible that some of our members are shying away from their domestic and association
responsibilities.
“As a PRO, we hear un- palatable information from colleagues across the country. The hardship is not limited to mechanics at Mogadishu. It is becoming so unbearable. It is only the grace of God that is sustaining us, I must say.
“When we are talking about vehicular movement, we are talking about fuel because
without fuel our cars in Nigeria presently cannot move. When the cars convey passengers and goods from point A to point B, the economy will go round.
“But because many people are no longer traveling because of hike in fuel and its impact on transport fare. Because of that, mechanics are finding it difficult to cope.
“Before now, cars used to food my workshop for minor and major repairs. But today, the
story is different. We have very few people working on their cars now. Many of them prefer us to go to work on their cars at
home just to be economical with the fuel.
“The only way forward is to soften this fuel regime issue. If the fuel price can be reviewed downward, it will help us. If cars are not moving, if they are not on the road, how can they develop a fault, how can mechanic, auto rewire, panel beater, etc get work to do?
“The truth is that our economy is not rotating the way it is and we, the artisans, are the ones bearing the sad reality and something must be done about it fast before people begin to dip their hands in bad things
but God forbid. We already have much trouble in our hands as a people and as a country,” he said.
