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| Chris Agbo and Abdulrahman Uba Daushe on rising fuel and transport costs |
For many Nigerians, the rising price of petrol has become another item to factor into the daily struggle to get to work, take children to school, visit the hospital or simply move around the city, but for persons with disabilities, the calculation can be more complicated because the cheapest means of transportation is not always an option available to them.
A journey that another commuter can make by boarding a commercial bus may require a wheelchair user to find a vehicle capable of accommodating both the passenger and the wheelchair, while a blind passenger may need to travel with an aide, effectively turning what should be the cost of one person's journey into the cost of two.
With petrol prices now selling at different rates across the country and reaching as high as ₦1,500 in some locations, persons with disabilities say the latest increase is putting additional pressure on people who already face significant barriers to mobility and employment.
The concern became particularly personal for disability advocate Chris Agbo, who questioned how persons with disabilities would cope with the latest increase in the price of petrol.
“Some people are even selling ₦1,435 depending on different prices, but some people are even selling up to ₦1,500,” Agbo said in a video shared on his Facebook page.
“And the question I want to ask everyone, everyone in the government, including President Bola Tinubu, how do you people expect me and millions of other persons with disabilities to survive in this amount that we are buying fuel now?”
Agbo's question comes against the backdrop of another increase announced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, which raised its petrol gantry price from ₦1,265 to ₦1,350 per litre effective September 12, the fourth increase by the refinery since August 21. The successive adjustments have raised the refinery's gantry price by ₦185, or 15.9 per cent, in 22 days.
The increase has already translated into higher pump prices in different parts of the country. PUNCH reported that petrol sold for ₦1,395 per litre at an MRS station in Lagos, while checks in Abuja showed prices of up to ₦1,430 at some stations.
But for Agbo, the issue is not simply how much motorists are paying at filling stations. It is what the increase means for people who cannot easily fall back on cheaper public transportation.
According to him, many persons with disabilities already have to spend more when they travel because of the support they require.
“They need to spend time too because sometimes they go out with their aides. They pay for themselves and also pay for their aides, like in the case of a blind person. And in case of a person on a wheelchair, also need to go out with an aide,” he said.
The additional cost, he argued, becomes more difficult to absorb when the person also depends on a private vehicle because available public transportation is inaccessible.
“If you're fueling your car, the much you spent before is no longer the much you're spending right now,” he said, adding that the situation had become increasingly difficult for persons with disabilities.
“It used to be hell on persons with disabilities before now, and now the suffering has doubled.”
When movement is not a choice
The difficulty confronting persons with disabilities is that transportation is not always a matter of choosing between a cheaper bus and a more expensive taxi.
For wheelchair users, the first question may be whether the vehicle can accommodate them at all; for blind persons, it may be whether they can travel safely and independently; while for people with other forms of disability, the availability of an aide or an accessible route may determine whether a journey that appears routine to others is possible in the first place.
This means that when transport fares rise, persons with disabilities may not have the same ability as other commuters to reduce their expenses by simply switching to another mode of transportation.
A person who ordinarily takes a bus may decide to walk part of the distance, use a cheaper route or change the time of travel. A wheelchair user whose available options are already restricted may have considerably fewer alternatives.
For those who depend on private vehicles, petrol therefore becomes a direct mobility expense.
That is the concern behind Agbo's appeal, as he questioned what the government was doing to cushion the effect of rising fuel prices on persons with disabilities.
“The question we need to be asking ourselves now is this: As government continue to, the fuel pump prices continue to increase, what is government doing to cushion the effect of it on persons with disabilities?” he asked.
His concerns are echoed by other persons with disabilities who say the rising cost of transportation is increasingly affecting their ability to leave their homes.
‘We cannot afford to move’
In another account shared on social media, Abdulrahman Uba Daushe, Chairman of the Spinal Cord Injuries Association, Kano State, described the difficulty faced by persons with disabilities as transportation costs continue to rise.
Daushe's account presents another side of the problem: the possibility that the increasing cost of movement could gradually turn staying at home into the only affordable option for some people.
For a person who needs to travel to work, hospital, school or a government office, remaining indoors may not be a matter of choice. It can be the consequence of being unable to afford the journey.
The situation also highlights the difference between the general cost of transportation and the cost of accessible transportation.
Where an ordinary commuter can board the cheapest available bus, a wheelchair user may have to look for a vehicle that can take both the passenger and the wheelchair, while someone who needs an aide may have to pay for both people.
In that situation, an increase in the cost of petrol does not remain at the filling station.
It eventually becomes an increase in the cost of being able to participate in everyday life.
The cost of an inaccessible system
For years, disability advocates have argued that transportation remains one of the major barriers to the social and economic participation of persons with disabilities in Nigeria.
The problem begins long before the passenger reaches the vehicle. A person may struggle to get to a bus stop because of inaccessible roads or pavements, encounter a vehicle that cannot accommodate a wheelchair, or find that there is no safe or affordable alternative available.
The result is that a transport system that appears available to the general population may remain practically inaccessible to a significant number of Nigerians.
That distinction is important in the current fuel-price debate because general transportation interventions do not necessarily address the specific barriers faced by persons with disabilities.
Agbo questioned whether government buses and other transportation palliatives being introduced to reduce the impact of rising fuel prices would actually benefit persons with disabilities.
“Even the palliative that they are doing, the fuel, they provided the buses that they said they want to provide a few buses. We cannot even benefit from it,” he said.
His concern raises a question that extends beyond the number of buses provided or the amount charged for a journey: can persons with different disabilities actually use the intervention?
A cheaper bus is of little assistance to a wheelchair user if the vehicle cannot accommodate a wheelchair, just as a transport system may remain difficult for a blind passenger if it does not provide the assistance required to travel safely.
More than the price at the pump
The latest petrol increase is occurring against a backdrop of continuing volatility in the downstream petroleum market, with the Dangote refinery increasing its gantry price four times since August 21. The price moved from ₦1,165 to ₦1,185, then ₦1,200, ₦1,265 and finally ₦1,350 per litre.
The refinery and other market participants have been operating against a backdrop of elevated international crude prices and supply disruptions, factors that have continued to put pressure on domestic petrol prices.
For ordinary households, the immediate concern is often the effect on transport fares and the prices of goods whose distribution depends on fuel.
For persons with disabilities, however, there can be an additional layer to the cost.
Transportation may already require an aide, a private vehicle or a more expensive service because the conventional alternatives are inaccessible.
This means that when the price of petrol rises, the impact may be felt not only in the amount spent on fuel but also in the ability to reach places where people earn a living, obtain healthcare, pursue education or participate in community and public life.
For someone already living on a limited income, these additional expenses can make the difference between making a journey and cancelling it.
‘Why are we keeping quiet?’
Agbo's frustration is also directed at leaders within the disability community, particularly those who have access to government or hold political appointments.
He questioned why some leaders were not using their proximity to those in power to communicate the concerns of persons with disabilities at a time when the cost of transportation was rising.
“We have a lot of persons with disabilities who are even in APC,” he said, appealing to those close to people in government to speak about the difficulties facing their community.
He also addressed persons with disabilities who had been appointed to government positions, reminding them that such appointments should provide an opportunity to represent the interests of the wider disability community.
“That appointment is not just for you as an individual,” he said. “That appointment is for you to serve the interests of persons with disabilities.”
For Agbo, the immediate concern is that the people who are already struggling to meet basic needs may be pushed further into hardship if no targeted measures are introduced.
“I want you to know that our people are suffering,” he said, urging disability leaders to speak to government.
A question of survival
The debate over petrol prices has largely centred on crude oil prices, refinery costs, market forces and the effect of rising fuel prices on the wider economy, but the accounts of Agbo and Daushe bring the discussion down to a much more personal level: what happens to a person whose ability to work, access healthcare or participate in society depends on transportation that is becoming increasingly expensive?
For persons with disabilities, the answer may involve fewer journeys, greater dependence on family members or aides, additional expenditure on private transportation or, in some cases, simply remaining at home.
That is why Agbo's repeated question — “How are we going to survive?” — extends beyond the price of petrol.
It is a question about how people with fewer transportation choices can continue to work, access essential services and participate in society when the cost of moving from one place to another keeps rising.
And as petrol prices approach or cross ₦1,500 in some parts of the country, persons with disabilities are asking government and disability leaders to consider not only the price of fuel, but the very different price that some Nigerians have to pay simply to move.