Today, my flatmate and I spent most of our morning searching for gas/petrol (because of a national power outage due to an issue between the state government and the power distribution company). We needed to charge our devices to work. There is currently a scarcity of fuel in Nigeria due to the importation of adulterated fuel into the country. I witnessed this myself today while at a filling station.
News Flash: Nigeria is one of the top oil-rich nations in the world and we refine our oil abroad
Here is a picture of the adulterated petrol at the filling station where I almost purchased petrol for my vehicle and generator. This would have damaged properties worth $5000.
A motorist had purchased about 50 litres of petrol this morning before it was discovered that the petrol was adulterated. No one is going to sue because this is Nigeria, we don't have a functional legal system--everyone is above the law (I guess this is one of the many things Nigerians claim to enjoy--lawlessness). He would most definitely be needing the service of a mechanic in the coming days. Most likely his vehicle would not run the same after today’s incident.
I drove around Ibadan searching for fuel. Fortunately, I got some but at a great cost. I could not work on the tasks i had today and have had to spend the rest of my day resting. A few hours after i got home i got the news that there was a robbery at Idi-Ape--a major road close to my house–about a 5 minutes drive. I had passed that route earlier this morning with my flatmate. I was an hour away from my death (maybe) because the armed robbers killed 3
2 polices and other bystanders.
This is me queuing up to get petrol at a filling station along the axis where the robbery occurred hours later.
I have been reading a couple of posts about migration and how living in Nigeria is cheap and free. Yes, housing is a lot cheaper; many of us don’t pay direct taxes. It sounds all nice on paper and we can sugarcoat the fact that most people in this part of the world live behind invisible prison walls. Plus, most people have not experienced anything other than Nigeria, so they can rationalize their suffering.
The scenarios i mentioned above are quite foreign to those who live in other spheres. They have other problems–better problems if you ask me, to deal with every day. The odds of me dying today was above 30% and it sends chills down my spine and it is something i can never rationalize.
Over 40% of the Nigerians are poor and by default escaping poverty seems like the only solution to their life's problem. Yesterday i was even contemplating not migrating. I am not doing badly. I and my partner are doing great. We can afford to rent a decent place in a decent neighbourhood, drive a decent car. But what happens if i fall ill and need medical attention? What happens when i get stopped and extorted by the police? What happens when i need justice and I am denied? Having money doesn’t insulate me (or anyone) from the systematic problems in Nigeria.
Surviving Nigeria takes power (not money or comfort) which only those in the political sphere possess. So if staying in a cheap luxury apartment and avoiding personal-income tax is your compensation for living in Nigeria, i really do not know what to say to you. We live in a jungle and there is no way i can rationalize it. I will rather be a nobody in a foreign land with a functional system than be somebody in Nigeria. It is a madhouse. Every day we are living on the edge, aren’t you all tired?