The media were awash with the news of the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, having to halt the 50 per cent reduction in the fares of government buses just after his reelection.
In fact, the wild conclusion is that the slash was simply a campaign tactic to curry the votes of Lagosians in the March 18, hotly contested gubernatorial election.
But the reality is that Sanwo-Olu had slashed bus prices by 50 per cent on 8 February 2023 following the Naira crunch that drastically increased the cost of living.
The Naira scarcity was induced by the Naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which phased out old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes.
This reduced the Naira in circulation with many unable to access the new Naira expected to replace the old Naira notes mopped out of circulation.
As a result, Nigerians were buying Nigerian currencies on the black market, paying N1,000 to collect N5,000, as the banks said the CBN didn’t provide sufficient new Naira notes to circulate.
Following the CBN’s decision to accept the judgment of the Supreme Court, which states the old Naira notes are still legal, the scarcity has been projected to end in a few weeks.
Consequently, Sanwo-Olu directed that fares for the state buses should be restored to 100 per cent starting from April 1, 2023.
This was disclosed in a statement by the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) on Tuesday, 28 March 2023.
Therefore, the decision to cut the fare coincidently occurred when Sanwo-Olu was seeking re-election. Also, the discontinuation was announced weeks after he was re-elected as governor of the state. So it was all a coincidence so has nothing to do with the success of his reelection. It was simply effected as the nation’s economy and cash crunch have begun to loosen up.
“Following the Supreme Court and federal government’s pronouncements on the use of old notes alongside the new notes and return of stability to the system, the 50% rebate is hereby discontinued,” Sanwo-Olu clarified.
