Fuel in FCT: The plight of women ‘black marketers’

Caroline Ameh seems bothered with having to wait for me to finish my interview with her ‘business colleagues’ before she begins telling her story. Her eagerness to share her life experience mirrored her feeling about the nation’s dwindling economy, and how its crippling effect has been treating her family unfairly. Wearing a dark blouse and […]

Caroline Ameh seems bothered with having to wait for me to finish my interview with her ‘business colleagues’ before she begins telling her story. Her eagerness to share her life experience mirrored her feeling about the nation’s dwindling economy, and how its crippling effect has been treating her family unfairly.
Wearing a dark blouse and ankara wrapper, the expression on her face reveals a woman who carries a heavy burden on her shoulder. The cool, friendly weather of July could not stop the excess sweat stemming from her body as she dabbed her face severally with a handkerchief.
The 50-year-old mother of five had been standing by the roadside at a junction close to the popular Mararaba market along the Abuja-Keffi road, running after vehicles to vend her 25-litre jerry can filled with petroleum product.
“I joined the business because of my condition,” she told me even before I asked her any question. I understand her curiosity, a stranger who has approached her with a camera, voice recorder and many questions.
“My husband stopped working eight years ago because of his worsening health condition which has degenerated to the level of doubting if he would survive the day. It is only God that holds his life up till now,” Ameh intimates, while other women around her wondered why she quickly divulged such ‘personal information’ to a stranger.
“He was discharged from the hospital recently, not because he is hale and hearty ,but we couldn’t continue footing his huge medical bill,” she adds.
Ameh had worked with the Federal Housing Authority for about eight years, but was later retrenched along with hundreds of staff during the second term of former president Olusegun Obasanjo without any benefit.
During her days in FHA, her husband owned  a restaurant rented from a hotel in the area before the owner evicted him. “We struggled  to build our own restaurant and run it for two months after which the business died down,” she says, adding that since then survival has been a challenge for the family.
For the past eight years, she has been footing the bills of her needs and those of her children, among whom is a postgraduate  student at the Benue State University. “It is my in-law that sponsors their education, while I’m responsible for their feeding,” Ameh says, adding that she runs helter-skelter to meet this obligation.
“When I saw other women in the black market fuel business, I had no choice than to join them, defying the odds of standing under the sun and in the rain to hawk a highly inflammable product.” She says she overlooks the dangers just to make ends meet. She adds, “Unlike the young ladies, I don’t have the strength to stand for a long time. Once I sell some litres and get some gains, I return home to prepare food for my children.
Ameh is not alone in the community of women who throng main roads and expressways in Abuja to hawk what they call a ‘real money-spinner’ for similar reasons. As Favour Idoko, who used to roast  corn for sale before joining the business, rightly puts “Anybody that joins this business must surely have a reason for that.” She adds “Life is not easy. If we have other things doing to support ourselves, we wouldn’t have been here running after vehicles every day.”
At a junction in Jikwoyi, Karu, a painted taxi slows down and five women, mostly in their early 30s, dashed to the driver shoving one another. “Oga fuel dey o. How many litres?” They asked the driver who, instead of responding to their request, kidded “Na wa oo, these women too like money.”
Though the women complain about the inevitable physical exhaustion they have to contend with in the business, but the struggle to eke out a living has made them to continue bearing the stress  therein. They are always at the mercy of the taskforce, who, they say, either demand for some litres or confiscate their entire product.
Fuel attendants at various filling stations also exploit the opportunity to make ‘illegal money’ by charging the black marketers extra fee. Daily Trust learnt that they sell the product to them mostly when their managers, who were said to have banned the sale of fuel to black marketers, are absent.
One of the women at Jikwoyi, Joy Cosmos, was gasping for breath as she explained why she engages with up the black market business “My husband is working but he has no money. He’s into furniture business and if one is not widely connected, he will not get money. My husband is not connected, so he’s not getting money.”
The mother of two and her husband had relocated to Abuja from Kano about three years ago, when a terrifying explosion rocked the city of Kano, killing hundreds of residents. “Since we came to Abuja, we have been struggling to survive,” Cosmos laments.
“I continue doing the business despite the danger because sitting at home without doing anything could worsen the family’s condition. What will my children eat if I stay at home?” She asked. “I pray the country gets better so that women will not be engaging in hard labour.”
Her husband, though not satisfied with her involvement in black market business, couldn’t stop her when she sought his permission to start the business. “He was not happy when I told him, but because of the family condition, he couldn’t say anything.”
“This one no be work na, sufferness dey there,” she says, in Pidgin English, when asked if she will leave the business for a better one. “Standing on the road endangers our lives. Sometimes, accidents happen on the road and people get injured. Only God saves us. Since morning, I haven’t seen my children. I leave them at home and stand by the roadside to look for money. It’s a pity. But what can we do? Man must survive,” she laments.
Cosmos acknowledges that getting the product is a nightmare even after parting with extra money, “Fuel attendants take risk because they are warned not to sell to those with jerry cans. We sometimes hide the jerry cans inside vehicles and drive it to the filling station. We get the fuel as early as 6:00am before the arrival of the station’s manager. If he comes, they stop selling for jerry cans.”
A senior secondary school (SSS) III student who simply identified herself as Esther says engaging in black market business coupled with the academic stress is a huge challenge. Her words, “The business is very hard. We struggle to buy the product at filling stations. We queue and still pay extra N400 or N500 for 25-litre petrol after paying the normal price for the product. The price of a litre ranges between 130 and 150 and more when fuel scarcity worsens.”
A marketer in Mabushi who gave her name as Comfort comments “The stress is much. Right from getting the fuel from the filling station to the point of sales, the task force are always after us. Everybody will take to their heels the moment we sight any black convoy. Before, we bribe them with some litres of fuel. But now, they confiscate everything you have.”
Blessing Obi left her husband in Calabar to trade in fuel in Abuja. “My sister invited me to Abuja and I just decided to join the business instead of staying at home idle,” she tells Daily Trust.
Another marketer  at Area 1, who does not want her name in print, declined to comment, saying “Bros, I beg leave me joor. I no fit say anything ooo. I have not sold anything since standing here.”
At Piwoyi junction, along Airport Road, another woman was seen with  a Jerry can and a hose sitting quietly a few feet away from the road. “Ayo, don’t cross the road,” she screams at her son who stood very close to the expressway holding a two-feet long hose and waving it at motorists.
“Someone had an accident this morning when the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was chasing us. He had bruises on his arms and legs,” she says when this reporter approached her and sought to know the reason she sits quietly by the roadside. 
She says no business is like selling black market fuel because of its quick fortunes. “If you stay here and sell at least 25-litre fuel, you see profit immediately. Which business will I do and get that fast money?” she enquires.