■ How Nigerians survive
By ENYERIBE EJIOGU, SIJIBOMI OYEDEPO-FATAYO and FAVOUR ONWUKA
MORE than one year after the All Progressives Congress assumed the reins of governance at the federal level, there is a silent howl and a deafening groan in the country as the economic recession being experienced bites harder, forcing families to devise ways to survive. About the only group of Nigerians who are not affected by the worsening situation are the people described in bank account opening forms as “politically exposed individuals” who make up the list of the privileged class that have access to free government money, and whose daily needs are funded from the federal and state budgets. The list includes the president, his deputy, state governors and their deputies.
They enjoy creature comforts that exemplify what George Orwell reflected in his thematic novel, Animal Farm, in which he said that “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” For them, diesel fuel for the huge generators that keep their homes nicely cool and the water they drink chilled, almost comes straight from the petroleum depots. They don’t worry so much about the price of diesel and petrol or for that matter, the price of bottled water. They get these things gratis.
But it is not so for great mass of Nigerians, as life in Nigeria today is a hard struggle to get from day to day. Sustaining families is tough and grueling. A pure psychological agony of striving to make ends meet. Because life must go on, Nigerians categorized as the masses have had to adopt common-sense strategies to survive recession.
‘I no longer spend money on Aso-ebi or accept all invitations to parties’
Mrs Rebecca Adetunji, runs a small confectionary, a kiosk built from wide metal panels, located at the busy Cele bus stop, off the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos, where she sells snacks known as small chops. Adetunji, a History graduate got into the confectionery business after working for two years as a poorly paid teacher in a private school. Even running private lessons still didn’t let her have the basics of life. Soon after she got married, she took a decision, with the support of her husband, to leave the teaching job and learn how to make snacks. Adetunji said she has never regretted leaving the teaching job, despite the stress of running the confectionery that started off three years ago. However, the economic downtorn is forcing some adjustments on her. Significantly, she is coping with the current situation by reducing the tendency to do impulse purchases of personal items that sellers of various goods like lace fabrics, bags and shoes that they bring around to show and entice her to buy on credit. Moreover, Adetunji revealed that her new mantra is to “boycott anything that is not essential.”
She added: “My sister, (referring to the reporter), it is not every function that one must attend nowadays. Money is gold these days. So I carefully decide where I go to and I hardly spend money to pay for Aso-ebi. I don’t want to go broke.”
Company staff who own cars and drive to work each day are expectedly concerned about how much they spend on fuelling their vehicles every day. This is even worse now that petrol sells for N145 per litre. One way out of the noose of burning fuel driving to work every day is to do car-pooling to save money on fuel. Johnson (surname withheld) who lives in Okota and works in a stock brokerage firm in Victoria Island found a beneficial solution in joining another person who uses his car as a cab in the morning on the way to work and in the evening while returning from work. Paying N250 to Victoria Island and the same amount in the evening is a more reasonable expense than the cost of fuelling his own car plus the wear-and-tear on the car and the stress of driving the long distance to and fro. “I now drive my car only Sundays, to take my family to church,” he enthused.
People like Johnson make up the passenger pool for Lekan, a company driver who resides in Obawole but works in Victoria Island. He leaves his home by 5am for the company’s office. He picks car owners that cannot afford to drive every day to work. The small fare they pay helps him fuel the car and earn extra income to augment his salary.
Goodbye bottled water, welcome boiled water
When bottled water became freely available, families gradually adopted them and stopped boiling water. Those that could not afford bottled water found sachet water to be a good alternative. With production costs increasing, the prices of both bottled water and sachet water have risen. A good number of homes have consequently moved from bottled water to sachet water. But with a 20-unit bag of sachet water now selling at N150, a 100 per cent increase from N70, families have found that it does not make sense anymore to continue buying sachet water especially as the children often waste the water as they rarely finish a sachet. You find children that would not ordinarily drink water with a cup from a five-litre plastic container suddenly develop love for drinking sachet water. Many mothers now resort to boiling water, letting it cool overnight and then filling their plastic containers with the boiled water.
Portions of food reduced
Meals are also being rationed in homes owing to the increase in the prices of food items and seasonings in the market. For those who love to eat several pieces of meat at mealtime, the price of beef, which has risen sharply has forced them to cut back substantially on consumption of meat. Many housewives have learnt new ways to stretch foodstuff. Mrs. Yemisi Adetula, a housewife, who lives with her husband and four children in a two-bedroom flat in Itire, Surulere Local Government Area, Lagos, and works at home to make machine knitted sweaters and pullovers to augment the family income, explained how she manages the housekeeping money that her husband hands over to her once he earns his salary. She said: “I go to Mushin market to buy major food items like rice, beans, crayfish, noodles, spaghetti, milk and Bournvita refill packs, etc, which will last for a month. I now ration everything. In the past, my children used to come home from school and say that they wanted soakies (cabin biscuits soaked in Bournvita and milk drink). These days I no longer allow them to do it. Because it is costly; the prices of cocoa beverages such as Bournvita, Milo and the others have risen, though the contents appear to be steadily dropping. You find that one refill pack no longer lasts long as it used to; but I make sure that my chil dren drink cocoa beverage in the morning before going to school. The portion of food my husband and children eat has reduced. It was not easy for them to adjust to the situation, but they had to or else we would never be able to survive till the end of the month. We have reduced our consumption of chicken. Now we eat more of iced fish (scumbia). Even the price of that one is also increasing, but it is more affordable than chicken or beef. My husband always loved taking catfish pepper soup as dessert every night. These days, I only serve him catfish pepper soup at the weekend.” Then she added with a coquettish smile: “I call it my special love treat (don’t ask me what follows after – that is our little secret).”
Practically every home has a generator, even if it is the popular “I better pass my neighbour” which provides electricity for the television set and light bulbs. Before the hike of in fuel price to N145 per litre, many homes had learnt how to adjust during the days of scarcity when a litre of petrol sold for as much as N250 per litre. That experience taught most homes how to ration the use of their generators. The result is that most families now turn on the generators at 7pm and turn it of at 10 or 11pm; gone are the days when generators were left on all through the night. Only few families can afford that luxury now.
For people who run businesses that desperately need electricity, these are tough times and they struggle to stay afloat. Take the case of Mrs Rita Nwosu, a woman from Orlu, Imo State, residing in Oshodi, Lagos, who said that her family doesn’t eat much but the fuel to run the generator she uses for her business is her biggest problem. Mrs. Nwosu operates a small bar on the ground floor of the house where she lives with the family. The 6.5 KVA generator she uses for the business also supplies electricity to her flat upstairs. During the day, the flat is disconnected from the generator to allow the freezers in the bar to cool the drinks for about five hours. It is switched on again, by 7pm as her regular customers begin to gather to drink and debate on issues of interest to them. On the challenge this entails both for the business and the family, she said: “We don’t eat much. The major thing that costs us money is fuel. We spend more money on fuel than food. We just put it on for five hours in the morning and four hours in the evening, from 7pm till about 10pm, when I close the bar and switch off the generator. I don’t open my bar on Sundays. In the past we used to go to Silverbird Galleria on Sundays after service, but we longer go out so much these days, to save money.
For Cornelius Njoku, an Estate Surveyor and Valuer, controlling the use of the family generator is like a major assignment for his teenage son, Junior, an SS1 student in a private secondary school. He is regarded as the Generator Prefect in the family. Strict control of the generator use, Njoku told Sunday Sun, is one important way to live within his means. He said: “When it is 10 pm and Junior, my first son, has not turned off the television and the generator, I go to the sitting room and turn them off myself. The children don’t understand that the cost of fuelling the generator is eating into my pocket.”
Mrs Kathryn, also shared that her husband insists that the family generator is switched off after three hours in the night when the children are asleep. It is then switched on in the morning to prepare the children for school.
Emergence of charcoal stoves in homes
People living in areas where public power supply is available for about two to three hours a day, now try to maximally use the few hours to cook with electric hotplates as a way of conserving gas and kerosene. Though electricity tariff increased early this year, the electric hotplate is still cheaper to use in the long run than gas. But the good old charcoal stoves offer a much cheaper alternative for homes that do not enjoy electricity supply for more than 30 minuets a day or even days and weeks.
Proprietors and school fees
Payment of school fees for children has not been spared by the stormy wind of recession blowing across the country. In response to the increasing cost of running private schools, proprietors have raised fees to be able to retain teachers, keep the schools operational and maintain the standard the students enjoy, while others have taken the other route of offering parents of their pupils what seems like a bonanza, to prevent such pupils from being withdrawn in the face of shrinking family finances. A certain school in Agege Local Government Area, Lagos offered to accept three children of same parents, who paid fees for two of them with the third allowed to attend tuition-free but paying for school books and other services provided by the school. Another school in Ogun State granted a five per cent discount for each child registered. Parents are now left with the option of sourcing for the increased school fees or withdrawing their children and wards from the school to register them in another school that will accept lesser fees.
Decoders decoded
When a satellite television company ran a promotion in December 2014, Joseph Ibezim, a journalist, acquired a decoder and enjoyed the free three-month subscription that came with first time purchase price of the decoder, dish and installation charges. He was on a packaged that offered him favourite international news channels while the children got cartoon channels.
Wearing a mischievous smile, Ibezim told Sunday Sun how he escaped the clutch of monthly renewal of the subscription: “When my initial subscription expired, we started to have serious power outages that lasted for days. In my office, I have unlimited viewing time and always go home late. So why waste money to renew a subscription I would not have power supply to enjoy? To avoid the pressure from my children to renew the subscription, I told them that it would disrupt their studies. I promised them that I would only renew during the holidays so that their studies would not suffer.”
By that smart move, he has been saving money by not renewing the subscription. For some people who used to view the high priced packages they have dropped to lower priced packages with the aim to save money. Many others like Ibezim have simply refused to renew their packages due to the epileptic power supply experienced all around the country. The Nigerian free to air stations are now good and entertaining enough for Nigerians to view. Mrs. Kemi Oyedepo, another digital TV subscriber is one of those who gave light and time as excuses for non-renewal of her subscription. She said: “There is absolutely no reason to pay money that will waste. We hardly have light so I just tell my son-in-law who renews it every month not to bother because at the end of the day, it goes to waste even when I know I am using it as excuse to save money.”
Making long calls now old fashioned, traffic jams disappear
Economically squeezed, Nigerians continue to find other ways to cut down on expenses incurred in making GSM calls. Now recognizing that voice calls take more airtime, people have become used to using data either as text messages (SMS) that cost N4 per ‘page’ of about 160 characters. An alternative is to communicate more through BBM or Whatsapp chat and other apps that permit making free calls. The GSM networks also help through the generous data packages they offer prepaid subscribers.
Not too long ago, seeing long queues at filling stations was a common sight, when the owners of the petrol stations luxuriated in the windfall caused by fuel scarcity. That era of long queues taught people how to endure using commuter buses to get around or even reduce distances they go in their own cars. This consequently meant using less fuel.
Today, the long queues have disappeared from the petrol stations. The petrol attendants who used to be haughty during the period of fuel scarcity now literally beg motorists to drive in to buy fuel. At a petrol station in Ikotun, Lagos opposite a phalanx of bank branches, the attendants now wear polo shirts that proclaim “A litre is a litre,” in the apparent drive to make motorists patronize the station because in the recent past, car owners were shortchanged by filling stations, who under dispensed fuel, a situation where people paid for a litre but got less than a litre. Moreover, the deregulation of the pump price has seen the price of petrol hover between N130 and N145 at filling stations.
For car owners on the fringe and struggling to fund other more important family needs, fuelling the car has taken a back seat with cars used mainly at the weekend to visit friends or go to church. The result is that traffic jams have reduced as many vehicles have been taken off the roads.