'Seats sold out, no discount' — Lagos transporters frustrate FG's road fare reduction

‘Seats sold out, no discount’ — Lagos transporters frustrate FG’s road fare reduction

January 01

09:18 2024

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Customers clutched tightly to the concrete counter that separated them from the attendants of God Is Good Motors (GIGM) as they demanded to be refunded the discounted cost of their travel in line with the 50 percent reduction in transport fares.

On December 20, President Bola Tinubu approved a 50 percent discount for inter-state road travels and 100 percent for train trips for Nigerians travelling to celebrate Christmas with their families.

Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals, who announced the development at the state house, said the discount will run from December 21 to January 4, 2024.

The minister added that the initiative will enable Nigerians to travel to “wherever they want to go to meet their loved ones without the extra burden of paying exorbitant fees for inter-state public transportation”.

The scheme is a partnership with selected transport companies across the country.

GIGM is one of the transport companies listed to participate in the scheme.

On a near-foggy Wednesday, the pale morning face of Anozie, further squashed with anger, welcomed me to the terminal of GIGM at the Jibowu area in Lagos. His sack of load to the corner, the index finger of his right hand on top of his lips, his eyes constantly following the three blue-wearing attendants hurrying around, attending to protesting customers.

Anozie and other travellers at the GIGM counter

He did not shout; he mellowed close to his brown-coloured sack, leaned against the counter, and waited to seize the attention of one of the attendants.

“I paid N72,800 for round-trip travel to Port-Harcourt, yet they said there is no discount,” Anozie swiftly responded to a question posed to him by this reporter about his situation.

The Lagos-Port Harcourt fare on GIGM website

He paid for a round-trip with the hope of getting a discount at the terminal or some point during his journey to Rivers state. But when he asked the officials of the transport company at the terminal, he was told that there was no provision for a discount.

He then cancelled the trip. With hands akimbo, Anozie demanded to get his money back in full, saying he was not travelling again.

“That is the normal price. There is no discount,” Bolanle Opeyemi, one of the attendants, told this reporter when he asked if there would be a discount on the fare from Lagos to Aba, Abia state, which she said cost N39,700.

Lagos-Port Harcourt and Lagos-Aba were part of the routes approved by the federal government.

GIGM receipt for Lagos to Aba

One month ago, during the Bayelsa governorship election, travelling from Lagos to Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, in a 12-seater GIG Hiace bus, cost only N23,000. But on December 28, it was N40,000 for the same route.

Beside Anozie at the counter was a man in a pink-striped shirt and a black fez cap donned as if to hide his displeasure and maybe frustration. He paid N42,000 on the GIGM website for the Lagos-Abuja trip with the hope of getting a 50% refund at the terminal, but to his dismay, an attendant told him that there was no provision for a discount or a refund.

“I paid N42,000 on the website. Do you know how difficult it is to get a bus during December time? I paid intending to get the discount, but only to reach here to hear another story different from what the federal government is saying.”

A similar scenario played out at the Young Shall Grow (YSG) Motors terminal in Jibowu. YSG is on the list of companies executing the federal government Yuletide palliative.

Chinyere Chukwu, an attendant with the company, gave this reporter a mouthful when he asked about the discount from Lagos to Uyo, the capital of Akwa-Ibom state.

Chinyere Chukwu, Young Shall Grow attendant, on the right side

“A handsome man like you should not be looking for a discount. You are much more than that,” she said with a piercing stare escaping the corners of her dark eyes to assess me.

When I insisted on the discount, she said: “There is no discount, but if you can’t afford the normal price, come for the night bus at Mazamaza and join them there for the trip.”

At the almost empty terminal, Lagos to Enugu costs as high as N33,500. But a check on the company’s website says otherwise. Lagos to Enugu was advertised as N7,000.

When I arrived at Chisco, one of the beneficiary transport companies, a few minutes after 7 am on Wednesday, a middle-aged man who identified as Gareth paid N20,000 for a night bus travelling from Lagos to Owerri, the capital of Imo. For a similar bus going the same route the next morning, I paid Chisco N25,000.

Empty seats at Chisco because “all routes were sold out”

Gareth, a man likely in his early fifties, said it had been a few weeks since he last travelled the route but he remembered that he paid N22,000 on the last trip to Owerri and it was an early morning bus.

As Gareth signalled to advise me to buy the ticket for the night bus, a few passengers came to book trips, but the large hall designed to house travelers was left with scores of seats empty after the female attendant declared: “Only Owerri is available; all other routes are not available.”

Passengers waiting to board a bus at GIGM in Lagos after paying the “normal price”

TheCable observed that many routes whose fares had been announced to be discounted by the government including Lagos to Yenagoa, Uyo, and Onitsha, were said to have been sold out and not available by the attendants of all the transport companies visited.

At GIG, the attendants insisted that no route was available as this reporter insisted he must leave Lagos that day.

The company said customers have to wait till January 7 since all routes were sold out. But when this reporter begged the officials, Bolanle, a dark female attendant, by a stroke of magic found four empty seats on a bus travelling to Aba the next morning, only that it cost a fortune – N39, 700.

At God Bless Ezenwata, another company enlisted by the federal government, passengers paid N26,900 for a journey from Lagos to Enugu. Lagos to Abuja, Port Harcourt, Onitsha or Uyo was also unavailable.

In a chat with TheCable, Tope Ajayi, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, said the Yuletide palliative scheme is a business contract with the transport companies.

“There is a monitoring team that goes about to monitor compliance and identify gaps. The government hopes to perfect whatever lapses and gaps in the future,” Ajayi said.

“It is a contract. It is a business transaction where the federal government is paying 50% of the agreed fare on the destinations to and fro. The transport companies get 100% of their fare. The only thing is commuters pay 50% and the federal government pays 50% on their behalf.

The receipts issued by Chisco… No discount

“There are videos of commuters who get this rebate daily at the various parks and loading points of the partnering luxurious transport companies. These are motor parks where people are enjoying the rebate apart from GIG, ABC, Chisco.”

Ajayi also shared travel manifest of some transport companies that were executing the initiative and citizens benefitting from it.