Owners of inter-state transport vehicles under the aegis of Public Transport Owners of Nigeria Association (PTONA) said they have lost over N200 billion.
This, they said, was due to the inability to operate during the ongoing COVID-19 restriction.
PTONA National President Isaac Uhunmwagho at a briefing appealed to the Federal Government to lift restriction on their operations.
Besides lifting the restriction, Uhunmwagho also urged the government to give financial aid to the operators to ease their burden.
The association said the adverse effects of the ban on inter-city travels are so dire that many of the transport firms and businesses are bound to go bankrupt without bailout.
“COVID-19 will not be gone in the next six months. We need to learn how to live alongside with COVID-19, and apply all necessary measures.
The longer the ban on inter-state travelling lasts, the much more will be the number of small and big business that will die permanently. The earlier the ban is lifted, the sooner some businesses will be able to recover,” he said.
According to him, the bailout will assist the operators to restore to sound motoring condition the buses grounded for months, reduce the number of passengers admitted on board when they re-start, as well as spend money on sanitation and health facilities.
He said: “These are costs too heavy for firms that will be convalescing from the effects of long lockdown to bear without government life-line, especially when the transporters are faced with the inability to continue paying salaries to workers due to lack of funds.
“If a vehicle takes 50 per cent of passengers, simple arithmetic will dictate that the transport fare will have to double.
The airlines have already come up with a similar answer. The question is: Can Nigerians, whose average level of income has been adversely hit by the effects of COVID-19, be able to pay significantly increased transport fares?”
FG to Nigerians: brace up for tough times
The Federal Government has asked Nigerians to prepare for difficult days ahead as cases of infected persons continue to rise.
The government noted the effect of these rising numbers would be seen in three weeks through increased death figures as a result of the pandemic.
As of the time of this report, Nigeria has recorded 17, 735. Sadly, 469 people have died from the virus.
The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who said this on Thursday, added that Nigeria was not out of the woods yet.
Mustapha said that Nigerians must prepare and make sure that they do everything that would help us as a nation and as a people overcome the virus.
He said: “It started in China. We had not business having it here but it has gotten here. I think at this point all we need to do is to prepare and make sure that we do everything that will help us as a nation and as a people overcome this deviant virus.
“When we started it was one (case) on the 27 of February. Today, we have a record number of over 17, 000 and it is still counting and the truth of this matter is that the adverse effects of these numbers will not be seen now until three weeks ahead. That is when you will begin to see the projections of the mortality
“Because it takes that length of time to go through the processes of incubation and the adverse effect of it. We have got hard days ahead. We have got tough days ahead. We need everybody to understand that we are not out of the woods yet.
“Sometimes when I am coming to the office in the morning I see people casually put their masks under their chin, that’s when they care to carry it and people go about their businesses as if there is nothing to dread.
“This is the time that we need to build a hedge around each other and support ourselves to make sure that because of coronavirus nobody should suffer any form of stigmatisation. That is my appeal to all of us because there are more difficult days ahead, there are harder times ahead as our figures begin to rise.
“We have not finished with the first wave. We have not even peaked. So don’t talk about the second wave. Let us deal with the first wave because there is so much work to do.”
The SGF noted that 80 per cent of infected persons are not in isolation centres because of fear of stigmatisation.
He said the government was caring for only 20 per cent of people who show up at isolation centres after developing critical symptoms.
The chairman of the task force appealed to Nigerians to stop stigmatising people who have contracted the virus.
