…As abandoned vehicles liter workshops

From Sola Ojo, Kaduna

AS the Nigerian economy bites harder following

policies introduced by the Bola Tinubu admin-
istration, 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 a
lot 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 ve-
hicle 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 situa-
tion at all. In truth, we are not enjoying it. We

are among those Nigerians that the govern-
ment doesn’t care about despite helping the government by fnding 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 discov- ered the faults in them, the
owners will tell you to fx 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 fnding it diffcult
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 de-
velop 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.