If I knew someone willing to give me a job there, I would like to go to Canada. I’m interested in driving, though I also have an engineering background. I know the mechanic job abroad can’t be as strenuous as the one in Nigeria. You will only be replacing gears, unscrewing and rescrewing parts. But for Nigerian cars, you will work on them so much that all your hands will be dirty and scraping the floor. Tohhh. But when you travel abroad, you will wear a uniform. You will work, but you won’t even feel like you’re working. I have friends there. One friend is in Dubai, another is in London. I don’t know what they’re doing. We only know what they tell us when they visit Nigeria. Some could be washing corpses or cleaning up after old people in the toilet. But whatever they’re doing, it’s at least better than what we have in Nigeria. Ehn ehn. Tohhh.
I was working with my friends. But the government started restricting us, telling us not to stay in certain places, and that we (mechanics, painters, panel beaters) should all go to Power Line. But that place is crowded, and I don’t have charms. All those old people would target you. They would have poured something in your shop before you arrive, and you would not get customers. That’s why I switched to driving.
I have been working as a driver at the airport for more than 15 years. I own this car I’m driving, but it is on hire purchase. I’ve been thinking of leaving the country for a long time, before Buhari even got there, before it got this bad. I was praying for the opportunity. I have a friend who just learnt how to drive those 4-clave trucks. He said his brother abroad told him that is what is reigning now and gave him some money to learn. He got a certificate, too. Even if his driving is not perfect, they will retrain him when he gets there. I said, tohh, maybe when I am ready to travel, I will try to do that. Driving garbage trucks is another useful skill. But you need money to learn. I don’t have enough at the moment.
Everyone is tired of Nigeria. As we are making money as drivers, we are spending it back on the car. If you earn 30,000 Naira and spend 15,000 Naira on fuel, what then is your gain? Every month, you will service your car. You will replace your tyres. You will pay rent. You will pay your children’s school fees. You will eat. You will repair your car if you don’t want to start from scratch. You will pay the car owner. That’s why I think if I see the opportunity to travel, I will grab it.
The airport authorities are also disturbing us. They call somewhere a public car park, so anyone should be able to use it. But the FAAN authorities will disturb you, saying you have no right to enter. They might deflate your tyres for three to four days. You wouldn’t be able to work. I took a risk by staying by the gate to court customers. Because when passengers leave the airport area, drivers who do not register will be the ones picking them up. So what is the point in us registering? We register and pay for tickets. I pay to use the public car park, too. They gave us uniforms and we have our ID cards. We are not touts. We are not thieves. Why then are they disturbing us? They say because some old men say car hire should not enter. Maybe when they originally made that policy, commercial drivers were not paying and they were bargaining. Let people pay their money and leave. The place they assigned to car hire people, not all of us have access to it because we are many. They only invite us in when it is our turn, and it may take weeks. Will you now park your car at home for two weeks because you are waiting for your turn? When there’s nothing wrong with you or the car.
Sometimes, when I am coming to work, it’s one of the things I think about a lot, leading me to decide that it’s better if I leave the country. It usually perplexes me that they disturb me in a place where I’m not operating illegally. These are the things causing hardship for people. Someone leaves his house to fend for his family; he doesn’t want to steal. You have a car and you’re still hungry. What’s now the point of the car?
We used to have customers reaching out to us to be driven around for three to four days or one week, but we don’t have that anymore. That’s one of the things the economy has affected. Maybe they’re visiting the city for business and they don’t have a car, so they rely on car hire. You can agree that they would pay 60,000 to 70,000 Naira per day. Those requests stopped coming later during the Jonathan era, before Buhari became president. We had surplus work at that time. You will definitely see customers. Flight tickets were not so expensive. But now, it is powerful people who board planes. When some people disembark, they will start trekking straight to the express. They know when they get there, they will get buses that will take them from one stop to another till they reach their destination. People didn’t do that before. Everyone boarded the taxis with confidence. If you were going to VI, it cost 6,000 Naira then. Ajah, maybe 16,000 Naira, because fuel was affordable. Filling up my tank then only cost 12,000 Naira. If you go to a station with a fair meter, it would be 11,000 Naira maximum, during the Jonathan administration. Now, going to Ajah, the fare starts from 40,000/45,000 Naira, because the fuel for that trip would cost up to 15,000/20,000 Naira. Tyres used to be 5,000 Naira. Now it costs between 25,000 and 35,000 Naira. But we have to keep hustling. There is still money in Lagos because there is business. It is only if you don’t step out of your house. When you come out, you will see a little to keep the body together.
As narrated by: LATEEF (LAGOS, NIGERIA)
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