A number of industrial drivers in Ibadan, Oyo State capital have been lamenting the low turnout of passengers earlier than and through the Eid-el-Fitr celebration and holidays.
Visits by the Information Company of Nigeria to the central motor parks at Sango and Iwo Highway and the Ojoo bus terminal confirmed drivers virtually left with nothing to do.
This was as a result of there was no enhance recorded in inter-state commuting.
One of many industrial drivers, Mr Musibao Alani, instructed NAN that there was nothing signifying any celebration or vacation, as there had been a low turnout of passengers.
“Persons are not travelling like earlier than, and it’s comprehensible due to the current financial scenario.
“Everyone seems to be managing the little sources obtainable to them. So, travelling is just not a prime precedence for many individuals,” Alani mentioned.
The Chairman, Saki Motor Park, Mr Michael Adelokun, mentioned that regardless of the extension of the vacations by the Federal Authorities, most individuals appeared to have deliberate to not journey.
“Maybe, that is affecting the same old surge to journey as a result of individuals didn’t know that there can be a change and that a further day can be added to the vacations,” he mentioned.
Adelokun said that there had been low patronage as passengers weren’t popping out en masse as was obtainable over the last holidays.
“Individuals haven’t been popping out because of lack of cash, at the same time as now we have not elevated the price of transportation.
”A bus trip to Saki nonetheless prices N3,000, and a automotive trip goes for N3,500, and that has been the value for a very long time now, regardless of the cruel economic system,” he mentioned.
Adelokun, nevertheless, famous that the price of petrol, automobile upkeep, and servicing was affecting cash realised from the transportation enterprise.
“As a result of basic low buying energy of Nigerians, it’s troublesome to extend transport fares amid skyrocketing costs of products and companies,” he mentioned.
One other driver at Iwo Highway Motor Park, Mr Aina Salawu, mentioned the park had been quiet and devoid of the same old hustling and bustling.
He said that the current financial scenario known as for a administration of sources, including that this had negatively impacted patronage within the motor parks.
Salawu lamented the impact on industrial drivers who stayed below the scorching solar, solely to go residence with little or nothing because of low patronage.
“We left the transport fares as they was once in order to not burden passengers, as all of us are struggling on this economic system,” he mentioned.
Additionally, a passenger, Mr Ashiru Mukaila, mentioned he had stayed for hours ready for the automotive to Lagos to be stuffed up, mentioning that this was uncommon.
One other passenger, Mrs Bunmi Tomori, mentioned that whereas she needed to journey as a result of the vacations would allow her to be together with her household, the journey was taking an excessive amount of out of her.
“There was no vital enhance within the transport fares, however only some passengers are coming round, and that is taking an excessive amount of of my time,” she mentioned.
