The state of Nigeria as a nation right now is one that many conversations are being had about. Things are hard, for a lot of people, and for a lot of reasons. One of these reasons is because of the high price of petrol right now in the nation.
This week, NNPC announced that it will be raising the price of petrol in Lagos to N998 and many people are buying from other fueling stations for around N1,050 per liter.
This was the topic of conversation during a recent episode of Nigerian talk show, Jasiri, and during the segment, things got so heated that one of the presenters, Tolulope Adeleru-Balogun walked off set after an emotional rant about the state of the nation. Here is the emotional moment as it happened, and the transcript of what she said.
Speaking about the rise of fuel costs, Tolulope Adeleru-Balogun said in her rant:
TOLULOPE ADELERU-BALOGUN: I barely drive, basically to the office. And so most times, a full tank will take me a week, a week and a half. So, every two weeks, you want me to be paying upwards of 60, 70 thousand. Ah! These days when it gets to half, I’m trying to buy because I can’t predict what will happen in Nigeria. See, we’ve talked about families having to choose which child will go to school, if any at this point in time. We’ve spoken about 1 – 0 – 1. People now are doing 0 – 0 – 1. I’ve told you about the lady who said she eats every other day because of her children. And I simply do not understand how we are in a country where this is where the natural resource [petrol] comes from. Ki le fe? What do you want? I am so sorry, I am vibrating right now. I am vibrating.
NNPC is N998. I paid N1,050 so it is N1,050 because how many of us have the time to queue at NNPC? We are trying to make the ends meet. Let me tell you, the ends are far apart right now. Nigerians, the ends are this far apart. Where is the middle ground? Where is the middle class? I don’t feel middle class anymore. My socio-economic standing has changed. If this is how I’m feeling, I can imagine people lower on the economic scale right now. What do you want from Nigerians? I looked at that guy as he was pumping my gas, and I was thinking to myself this morning, I can say I can afford it, but what about other people? Is it until Nigerians start to drink water from gutters? Is it until we use blood to run our vehicles? I need a break!
THE VIDEO
Here’s the video going viral of the moment it happened:
“Is it until Nigerians start drinking water from the gutter or use blood to run our vehicles?”
This brought me to tears 🥲 pic.twitter.com/u1CZNGfOzz
— @𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗷𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗯𝗼𝘆 (@OneJoblessBoy) October 11, 2024