an·ec·dote 3

Soon after I finished putting up a post about the fuel scarcity that made mention of black market fuel sales on the street, I left the library and luckily found a ride home with a house officer (medical intern). The coincidence of the timing, makes this story even the more hilarious. anecdote 3!

an·ec·dote 3: "THAT'S HOW WE DO BABY!!"

As I set out with the house officer to his car, he notes, his gas tank is on E (empty) but he knows where he can get some fuel. So we enter the car and head out into the streets, there is a gas station right opposite the hospital, so of course we saw the craziness of people hustling to buy fuel at the station. The house officer cockily says, "I don't have to do such." I gave him a look of "Oh ok, no need to impress here," and we sped off opposite the vicinity of fuel scarcity mania. A little less than 2 minutes later we get to a side street where a small crowd is gathered, many people are carrying jerricans. He excuses himself and hops out the car, he goes to his trunk and grabs his jerrican and disappears.

The house officer reappears maybe like 5 minutes later, and proceeds to open his gas tank. I had recently had a discussion with my friend, who says he doesn't mess with black market fuel, the most he can do is put it in his generator, he doesn't trust it in his car. As a result, I quickly shout to the house officer, "ARE YOU GOING TO PUT THAT IN YOUR CAR?!" he responds with a smug look, like "of course" and proceeds to pour the black market fuel into his gas tank. So I turned back around in my seat and waited for him to finish. He finally finishes up, hops back in the car and he exclaims "THAT'S HOW WE DO BABY!!" and before you know it we are back out on the road zipping through the streets.

Where I stay is no more than 3-4 miles from the hospital. While waiting at the light, the house officer's car starts to make a weird noise, sort of like a sputter. I ignore it at first, but then alarmingly look up at the house officer to get confirmation that the sounds the car is making is familiar to him. However, when I look up at his face, his facial expression, told a story of confusion. When the light turned green, and we moved the engine made a knocking sound, and the first thing that came to mind was BLACK MARKET FUEL!!! I wanted to say "boy I warned you about putting that mess in your car", but instead I remained quiet.

Maybe less than 24 feet from the turning into the estate I stay in, the car slows down to a complete stop. The house officer went from quiet to irrate and I did not know what to say or do, so I remained mute! In my mind I was thinking why couldn't this have happened AFTER I got home?! A little while after making a few phone calls to his mechanic, we sat in the car in complete silence, it was so awkward, so I decided to cut the tension and yelled "THAT'S HOW WE DO BABY!!" However, instead of my outburst serving as some comic relief, the house officer shot me a cold glare of annoyance. So I remained quiet until his mechanic came. I wanted to leave him behind and walk my butt home, but I waited to be nice.  We remained outside for another 2 hours, before the mechanic was able to do some magic and get the car moving again, the ride home was most definitely awkward!


I think that's the first and last time the house officer will be giving me a ride home, but it will also be last time he EVER puts black market fuel into his car tank. I never had the nerve to tell him "I told you so", so I will say it now: I TOLD YOU...THAT'S HOW WE DO BABY!! :-P

It is what it is!

SIDENOTE
The black market sellers are making a killing, fuel is sold for 97naira per liter, the house officer bought 3 liters of fuel for 1,500naira, making it 500naira per liter!!!!!

FUEL MATTER

Reporting live from Lagos! Nigeria is currently facing its first fuel scarcity of the year, and I am here to live through it YAY (sikeeee). The fear buying started early last week, however the actual shortage did not start until this past Thursday and it is still ongoing. It appears as though the fuel that has been purchased by various oil business people have failed to be released at respective sea-ports as a result, FUEL NO DEY for Nigeria. A variety of things have come about as a result of the fuel shortage, including:

•  PRICE INCREASES: my taxi fare has gone up 500naira!!! Even the keke-napeps (tricycles) have gone up 50-70naira! Costs of fruit (it is mango season by the way) etc.  the overall gist is, scarcity of fuel = higher prices. Transportation has been throwing my budget out of whack, so I’ve been taking more tricycles and taking more walks of life, it is what it is :-P 

• TRAFFIC OF LIFE: Due to the absurd number of people crowding up and cars lining up for fuel at gas stations, traffic of epic proportions have resulted. The traffic has gotten so bad that this past Saturday, it took me a whole 43 mins to move less than a mile.

• FIGHTING!!!: At some of these fueling stations there are many sights to behold. Dozens of people crowd around with there Jerri-cans (containers gas is stored in) to get a chance to purchase some gas. Some people wait for hours in the heat, understandably some people grow impatient and tempers flare, Jerri-cans are busted over fellow citizens heads, pushing and shoving and the like as people battle for their share of fuel.

•  ILLEGAL INCREMENTS OF GAS PRICES: Nigeria is an oil-producing nation, and like many other countries around the world who also produce oil, there is a subsidy on the price of fuel. It was increased to 97naira per liter two years ago. However during times of fuel scarcity some fueling stations will illegally increase the price and sell their gas for 110naira and upwards. Not to mention BLACK MARKET FUEL. Only God knows what is in it, a mix of water, antifreeze, and whatever else they can add to reduce the amount of actual fuel they sale to customers on the black market. 

Electricity/Power is not constant in Nigeria; as a result many citizens depend heavily on the expensive use of generators. In order to use generators you need fuel! So without fuel, and no constant power, the average Nigerian remains in the dark, without electricity in their house. I have grown accustom to adjusting to the situation, when there is power I make sure to: 

• charge my phone and laptop
• blast the A/C in my room (even if I'm cold, so that the room can remain cool after the power goes out) 
• after having my bath, I immediately fetch water for my next shower (Water is pumped with the use of electricity in Nigeria, as a result, when there is no power, you can’t get water to run from your tap. It can be the worst if you wake up in the morning and you have somewhere important to go, but you can’t take your bath, because there is no water because there is no electricity!)

Usually when the electricity goes out, in about 3-5 mins you will hear the buzzing of generators that have been turned on by various residents in the neighborhood, but recently due to the fuel scarcity, when the power goes out, silence remains because people have been unable to get fuel.

Living through my first Nigerian fuel scarcity hasn’t been terrible, in the sense that I am blessed to manage through the ordeal, however it has been a bit disheartening to see the extra strife many citizens have to go through in an already hectic city due to the fuel scarcity wahala (problems). Altogether it has been a sober reminder of how the quality of life in cities like Lagos is in need of much improvement for the average Nigerian.

It is what it is.