Tough economic realities such as fuel scarcity and a high inflation rate, await parents and students alike as schools resume for the 2024/2025 academic session across the nation on Monday (today).
On Tuesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited increased the petrol pump price from N580 per litre to N855.
The development triggered outrage in various sectors as the product is now sold for between N900 and N1, 200 per litre in many parts of the country.
Black marketers have also seized the opportunity to jerk up prices above N1000 per litre.
Coincidentally, the increase in price of Premium Motor Spirit clashed with the commencement of petrol refining by the Dangote Refinery, a development many had thought would lead to a drastic drop in prices of petrol, including those of goods and services.
However, Nigerians were dealt a major blow when oil marketers and the NNPCL informed them to expect products at prevailing market prices.
Last week, President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gilly-Harry urged Nigerians to prepare for a higher price of petrol in days to come, saying that prices would henceforth be sold at the current market prices.
Again, the NNPCL on Saturday said there is no guarantee of lower prices as it is set to begin lifting petrol from the Dangote Refinery.
NNPCL would reportedly commence lifting petrol from the refinery on September 15.
In a statement by its spokesman, Olufemi Soneye, the company said the pricing of petroleum products from any refinery, including the Dangote Refinery Ltd, is determined by global market forces.
Soneye, NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, said that there is no guarantee of lower prices associated with domestic refining of the products in the country.
“The pricing of petroleum products from any refinery, including the Dangote Refinery Ltd. (DRL), is determined by global market forces,” he said.
Soneye’s response comes amid rumours that the company is attempting to monopolise the off take of all products from the Dangote Refinery Ltd.
“The attention of the NNPC Ltd has been drawn to a press release by the Muslim Rights Concern, which claims that the Dangote Refinery Limited (DRL) is being undermined by actions of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
“Specifically, MURIC asserts that recent changes to the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit will prevent the Dangote Refinery from offering lower prices and that NNPC Ltd. has become the sole off taker of all products from the refinery,” he stated.
As of Sunday morning, the queues which had piled as a result of several weeks of petrol scarcity are yet to subside, as few public transportation buses were seen plying the roads, while fares have skyrocketed across the country.
This puts into question the difficulty the majority of students would face in securing means of transportation to their various schools, and the high transportation they are likely to pay.
The rising inflation rate at 33.40 per cent, and the high food inflation rate at over 40 per cent by the National Bureau of Statistics has also worsened the woes of parents who now struggle to put food on the table.
Recently, a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Ibim Semenitari, asked President Bola Tinubu to address food inflation, lamenting that hungry Nigerians could no longer afford ‘garri’ to drink once a day.
“The first thing therefore was the issue of food security. If people can even eat,” she said on a socio-political programme aired on television on Sunday.
Semenitari, a former Commissioner for Information in Rivers State, said “Nigeria needed recalibration,” adding that somebody somewhere should see that things are going south and do something urgent about it.
She said the president should be introspective about the kind of legacy he wants to leave for Nigerians.
“The President should think in terms of legacy: ‘When I’m done, what will I be remembered by?’ And the truth is that his aides can’t determine that because legacy is a personal thing. It is not something that sycophants can give you.
“Nigerians are literally unable to eat. I’m not talking about three-square meals. We are not even talking about three-round meals; we are talking about one meal a day because the cost of garri, which is a staple, has gone up.
“People are paying N22, 000 for a basin of garri; they used to buy it at N6, 000. Garri was something that if you didn’t have money for soup, you would give your children garri, and they would drink it without sugar. Now, they can’t,” she lamented.
The ex-commissioner said Tinubu should demonstrate leadership and not spend the country’s scarce resources on a new private jet during the time of austerity.
The challenging economic situation has continued to call for caution as the Federal Government and the labour unions recently agreed to a new minimum wage of N70, 000.
The new minimum wage, however, is yet to be implemented.
Only days ago, the Lagos State Government announced that it would allow workers in its employ to work from home at least two days a week, except those in critical sectors.
However, a teacher in one of the state-owned secondary schools in the state (names withheld), said teachers would not benefit from such a gesture.
Findings showed that private school owners have since increased school fees prices. Prices of textbooks and notebooks and stationeries have also increased astronomically by as high as 300 per cent.
While many schools are starting to cut down on the number of their teachers, others now opt for part-time appointments, especially in core subject areas such as English Language, Mathematics, and Sciences.
Many parents and guardians are struggling to get their children in nearby schools. Some have also withdrawn their children to public schools; as prices of bus services provided by private schools have also increased.
Commenting on the development, the Nigeria Union of Teachers called for the payment of Hardship Allowance for teachers.
The Secretary General of the NUT, Dr. Mike Ene, said that because education is on the Concurrent List in the Constitution, the government providing buses to convey teachers to and from schools might not work.
He said, “Federal, state and local governments are employers of teachers at different levels and they have varied capacities. But, if a palliative measure of assisting them to cope with high transport fare is agreed, it could be monetised. It is going to be a sort of palliative measure. The agreed sum can now be paid to teachers whether at the primary or secondary school level.
“What is obvious is that the new wage structure is not enough to take teachers to school and back home.
“Do you know that not all states implemented the N30, 000 minimum wage before this new regime of N70, 000?
“And some states are giving workers what I call human face holidays, asking them to go to office thrice weekly, but teachers are not going to benefit from that.
“They go to school five times a week. If they are lecturers in higher institutions they can find means of scheduling their lectures.
“As long as we are not serious with education, and we want hungry teachers to teach our children, they will teach hungrily.
“A happy teacher will also teach happily. It is a matter of garbage in, garbage out. I gathered that the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress is saying that they accepted the N70, 000 minimum wage based on the understanding that the price of fuel won’t be increased, but it has been jerked up more than once since then,” Ene said.
