By Abubakar Umar
On Saturday 18/2/2023 being our training day for Civil Society Situation Room Election Observers that took place in Dutse, I left my room at exactly 7am and rushed to Hadejia old Motorpark. Without a delay, I got a car that is traveling to Dutse and got seated. After waiting for other passengers to come before the car took off for some couple of minutes the conductor asked for transport fare. I said I wanted to make a bank transfer. The conductor said they don’t have an account to receive the money. I desperately brought out the last N2,000 new notes from my pocket, gave him and collected my change of N600 unsure of how I can afford to come back in such a situation.
At the end of the training, I immediately left the venue with a desperate face looking for where to get cash. I went to where banks are located in Dutse but to my surprise, all banks were closed and no single person was standing near the Automatic Teller Machines of all the banks, except CBN which is open only to collect old notes.
With a tired body and a desperate mind, I just went straight to Dutse’s modern Motorpark. On arrival, a car traveling to Hadejia is almost full and just waiting for one passenger. On seeing me, they asked me to enter and I told the driver that I didn’t have cash and wanted to make a bank transfer. The driver said he doesn’t accept transfers. I begged him and the conductor to allow me in, but they both seemed not to care, which made me to move aside and wait.
I was there like a statue, 3 cars left for Hadejia while I was there standing and watching. The NURTW official kept saying they don’t accept transfers and we waited for almost 2 hours.
Luckily, 3 more of my co-trainees arrived at the Motorpark and they too didn’t have any cash with them. Another woman arrived too without cash. Even then, they refused to accept the transfer.
At last we saw one car was carrying bags of rice. We gathered and begged the driver. The driver, after refusing, finally agreed and gave us someone’s account and asked us to gather the money in the account of one of us and send it to him in one transfer. I was the first to successfully transfer the money because I was using an OPAY account which has a very good network at the moment.
In addition to the time we wasted begging them, we have to wait till they confirm the receipt of the payment before we took off. The person whose account we gathered the money was using UBA Bank trying to make the transfer using USSD code. When he couldn’t, they all begged me to send 5k to the account given to us by the driver if I have it in my account and later the other person would send back to me, when there is network.
To avoid arriving late during this unsecured time, I agreed and transferred. The driver started the car. While on our way, the driver claimed that they didn’t receive the alert and asked me to check my balance. I showed them the receipt and everyone saw it including the driver. We continued the journey till when we arrived at Kafin Hausa, the driver stopped and insisted that they must receive transaction alert before he can continue. They gave me phone number of the person whom the account belongs to and I sent the receipt via WhatsApp. He read it and claimed that we have to copy the transaction alert (SMS) and send to him. What if someone manipulated the text and sent to him? I said Opay doesn’t send SMS alert, rather only email and Application notification which I showed to all including the driver. He then agreed and continued till we reached Hadejia. He stopped again at Kwanar Jama’are for the same issue. We all insisted that they check their bank balance.
The driver then took us to a bus stop, we alighted thanked him.
The next day (today morning), I received almost 10 missed calls from the person whose account the driver gave us. I texted him and asked what is it he wanted and he replied I have to pay the money so he will stop calling me. I said I already paid, sent him receipt in the presence of the driver who brought us and my fellow passengers all saw it. If there’s any trouble, we may need a ‘bank statement’ to support his claim. Since I sent that message to him, he hasn’t called back again.
How on the earth on the eve of cash scarcity and cashless policy an official Motorpark (State level) doesn’t operate with POS devices? Where is NURTW? Where is the State Ministry of Transport? Where is the State Government itself? Does the President really care about people’s situation?
Abubakar Umar Gbs
