Taxi drivers in Abuja have expressed frustration over the delays in the government’s promised free conversion of their vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas, intended to mitigate the impact of rising fuel costs.
Many drivers have been struggling to keep their businesses afloat as fuel prices continue to soar.
A cab driver, Aliyu Nasiru, lamented, “Honestly, I am fed up with all these delays. They promised us free CNG conversion to help deal with the fuel hike, but here we are still waiting while prices keep going up.
“Every day, I am spending more on fuel than I am making, and it is just not sustainable. They said they could only convert two or three cars a day. How will it happen when there are plenty of us?
“We have had to raise our fares because of the fuel prices, and now passengers are complaining and avoiding us. We are losing business, and it is getting harder to survive out here,” he complained.
He said that the worst part was the issue of lack of awareness about CNG among the drivers, who were not educated on the benefits and usage of the alternative fuel.
“The worst part is, most of us don’t even know what CNG is or how it works because the government has not done enough to educate us. They need to do more than just make promises; they need to act, and fast.
“I am tired of hearing ‘soon’ and ‘wait’. We need real action, not more talk. They need to get serious and roll this out properly, or we are just going to keep suffering. It is frustrating, and we are all at our breaking point,” Nasiru said.
Another Abuja taxi driver, Ike Emmanuel, told our correspondent, “This fuel hike is killing us. We were promised free CNG conversion to help with the high cost of fuel, but up till now, nothing has been done.
“They said the conversion would start soon, but we are still waiting. It is taking too long, and we are struggling to keep up with the cost of fuel every day.”
The conversion process, which has begun in some states, like Oyo and Lagos, is yet to fully take off in the Federal Capital Territory.
“We need this conversion urgently so that we can reduce our fares and still make a living. Right now, the passengers are also feeling the pain because we have to increase prices just to survive,” Emmanuel added.
He said FCT drivers were hoping the government would keep its promise on the CNG conversion.
The President of Painted Abuja Taxis, Shehu Shugaba, also expressed frustration over the delays in the conversion process in the FCT.
“The conversion has not started. Probably next week, they will commence ours. The conversion is taking them so long because they can only do two to three vehicles in a day. So, how long will it take for them to finish?” Shugaba asked.
He added that the conversion to CNG would make fares cheaper for passengers, provided the process was expedited.
“If N4,000 will let us work for a day, you will discover that it will be cheaper for passengers, and we will monitor it to make sure that our prices come down.
“That is why the government is saying that we should go and convert our 100 vehicles free of charge. The committee of the Presidential CNG Initiative needs to do something about this quickly because most of our members do not know what CNG is, so they need to go on serious sensitization,” he stated.
Also, the spokesperson of the Transportation Secretariat, Ifeanyi Ughamadu, noted that the initiative was being driven by a private sector company, but was unclear on the specific involvement of the government.
“What I know is that a private sector company came to do a demonstration of what their company can offer. They are doing conversion of fuel to CNG. But I do not know on that part of the government,” Ughamadu said.
In his reaction, the Programme Director and Chief Executive of the Presidential CNG Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, told media that the responsibility for rolling out the initiative rested with the FCT administration.
“It is left for the FCT state government to roll it out. Oyo has rolled theirs, and Lagos has started with theirs too. So states must do their work, and the Federal Government is not going to do everything. We will do our job, but let the state governments do theirs,” Oluwagbemi stated.
Recall that in July, the Federal Government announced that the conversion of petrol and diesel-powered commercial vehicles to CNG would be free of charge.
The government said that the initiative was set to benefit commercial transporters from various unions, including the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, the National Union of Road Transport Workers, and the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, among others.
