Nigeria: Thy Name is “Ripped Off” -Bayo Onanuga

Nigeria’s Aviation Minister has been the toast of Nigerians online for pushing for the rectification of years of rip-off of Nigerian passengers by the duo of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airline.

Let me join the train of praise singers: Mrs. Stella Oduah surely deserves all the accolades, even as we wait to see how the two airlines will reimburse the legion of travelers they had cheated all these years. But Nigeria appears not to be joking this time around as government said it is planning to file a class suit against the two airlines, on behalf of the swindled Nigerians.

My only surprise is why the Nigerian government has chosen this moment to sanction the two airlines, because the cheating had gone on for many years.

Ever-talkative Nigerians, had talked about it, and written about it in newspapers and magazines. Until now, there was no official reaction, leading to the belief that the Nigerian government was part of the conspiracy of fraud. And without the government’s shield, a lot of Nigerians had chosen to board planes to Europe and America in Accra, Ghana, where the more responsible government, tries always to protect its citizens.

I also hope that the Nigerian government will extend its cheat-bursting fervor into other sectors such as government contracts, the prices of goods in the established malls, the prices of cars, the volume of fuel sold to Nigerians at pump stations, the PHCN demanding for payment for electricity not supplied, the fees we pay to send our children to private schools and so on.

In Nigeria, ripping government off and the citizens alike has been the norm for a long time, such that foreigners even take us as brainless idiots, especially when our bureaucrats and politicians connive with them to defraud our country. I heard that some Russians involved with a multi-billion dollar project in Nigeria’s South East, once used the imagery of our petrol to describe the idiocy of our leaders and the stupid bureaucrats: Nigerians, one Russian said, have petrol, but they do not have petrol in their brains”. It plainly means we are the biggest fools living on mother earth.

In our country, the cost of contract is the most expensive in the entire world. The costs are skyrocketed by the hefty bribes contractors pay the Nigerians officials, sometimes at two or three times what the contract would have cost. This year, Transparency International reports that Nigerian bureaucrats have earned $3billion dollars in nine months as bribes. By the end of the year, the kickback would have snowballed to $4billion or more. No wonder, bureaucrats, with their meager salary, when converted to dollars, are able to send their children to schools abroad, paying a lot of dollars. No one asks them, where they get the money off. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ appears to be the unofficial policy of the Nigerian government. There is no other way to perceive it: bribe money taken by officials, is a rip off, it is money fleeced from Nigeria and Nigerians.

Daily, Nigerians are also ripped off at fuel stations. Despite the existence of a monitoring agency under the NNPC, fuel stations calibrate their litre the way they like, such that one litre at an Oando station in Surulere, is not the same at Total or Mobil or another Oando station in Lekki. So, when a Nigerian buys 30 litres, he is more often than not paying for just 20 or 25 litres. Think about the trillions President Jonathan claims his government is spending to subsidize petrol consumption—-at least a quarter of the benefit is denied the Nigerian consumer.

Ghana has found a way out of this cheating at the pumps; by introducing a ten litre measuring can at the stations. When you want to buy fuel, you can test the integrity of the dispensing pump, by demanding that the attendant uses the ten-litre can first. Ghana surely has a lot to teach us in protecting our citizens from fraud inflicted on us by fellow Nigerians and the negligent government of Nigeria.

Our citizens are also ripped off when they buy a lot of other goods. Some years ago, our office wanted to buy some Toyota cars for official use. While we spent about N5million to buy a Toyota Avensis brand, one of our directors opted to import a Camry, higher than Avensis direct from California in the United States of America. We were surprised that the Camry reached Nigeria at a far lower cost than the Avensis. Every car buyer knows this fraud goes on all the time. Our government is aware the racket goes on, but chooses to do nothing about it.

Just as Nigerian officials look the other way when money sucking private schools over-charge parents who crave good education for their children. Proprietors charge fees whimsically; believing the education loving elite will pay. In my view, government has a power of regulation—government loses its essence if it abandons this role, in the name of ‘free market’.

Have Nigerians ever wondered why our people carry the biggest luggage when travelling home from Europe and America or Asia? The answer is simple: the Nigerian traveler tries to use the opportunity of the journey to buy goods that he knows he could get at home, outside there at far cheaper prices. I have a set of furniture at home that I bought in the UK for 2000 pounds. At an upscale shop in Lagos, where I found a similar item, the cost was three times higher than the UK price. Similarly, I found that in the UK, a small pack of brown rice, which I eat for medical reasons, goes for 99 pence. In Lagos, it is available for about N1, 500, about five pounds. Why this hefty disparity? Is there no law in our country criminalizing profiteering?

There are so many areas where we are ripped off daily. I can only urge all the cabinet colleagues of Stella and the members of the National Assembly, whose emoluments, by the way, are the biggest fraud ever in our country—another rip-off— to wake up to their responsibilities to Nigerians.

-Onanuga is the Editor-in-Chief, TheNEWS/P.M.News/A.M.Sports