Petrol hike: Workers resign from jobs in droves

The recent changes in government policies have continually tell on Nigerians, especially the recent increase in fuel price across the nation.

Within the current year, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has changed the petrol pump prices twice, ranging from N617 to N855.

A litre of petrol was sold for N950 in Lagos and above N1,000 in other states within the space of two weeks in September.

This recent hike in fuel prices has really made it tough for some Nigerian workers to have a good standard of living.

However, this tragedy has made many workers to take decision of resigning from their workplace or sleeping over to reduce costs as they can no longer meet up with the high cost of transportation which is eating up greater part of their salaries.

Mr. Dotun Owoyemi, who works on the Island, lamented: “I work on the Island and live there leaving my family apart because of the cost of transportation despite my five-figure salary.

He said: “Before now, I spent N800 to and fro to my workplace, but now, I spend N2500 to N3,000 on daily basis.

Also, he said: “Almost half of my monthly salary is spent on transportation alone. A destination of N500 t-fare is now increased to N1,000.

In addition, many Nigerian workers had to resign from their work due to the high inflation of fuel prices which has made most of them not to have anything left from their salary.

Another worker, Miss Douglas Sandra, said: “I’ve resigned from work already.

“I work at King Perekule, GRA and I live around Elelonwo, Port-Harcourt.”

She added: “I spent N52,000 for transportation in a month for job whose salary was not up to N100,000. I couldn’t even feed myself”.

Besides, the increase in fuel prices does not only affect the cost of transportation, but also affects the price of commodity in market.

A salary earner can no longer buy a half bag of rice not to mention buying a bag of rice.

Many traders have tagged the high price of fuel to the current increase of price of goods and services in market.

Also, Mrs. Dorcas Chukwuma, a midwife who works in Marina, said:

“I worked as a midwife in one of the private hospitals in Marina but resigned lately due to the high cost of transportation.

Sadly, this hike in fuel price has brought more suffering to the people as everything seems to be connected to fuel.

Many fathers no longer visit their families daily, but rather sleep at their workplace because of cost of transportation.

This will enable them to have little left to fend for their family.

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