President Bola Tinubu’s drive for measurable transport fare cuts from 1 October through Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and electric buses has left many Nigerian commuters still paying unchanged or higher prices, even as the Federal Government says reductions have already begun on selected routes.

Checks reported by Punch across more than a dozen states on Thursday found that the National Affordable CNG Transit Programme had yet to deliver widespread savings. Unions and drivers cited a shortage of CNG buses, high fuel and spare-parts costs, and weak refuelling networks. Pi-CNG & EV executive chairman Ismaeel Ahmed countered that several states are already cutting fares and that 1 October marks the start of federal monitoring, not a simultaneous nationwide deadline.

What Tinubu promised after meeting the governors

On 19 September, Tinubu updated Nigerians on the programme agreed with the 36 state governors at their 27 August meeting. The shared objective, he said, was that more citizens should begin to see “measurable reductions in transportation costs” from 1 October.

“I encourage every state to maintain the momentum towards October 1. Work with transport unions and commercial operators. Support conversion and fleet deployment. Facilitate the infrastructure required. Above all, ensure that savings from cheaper energy reach Nigerian citizens through lower fares,” the President said in the State House statement.

He pointed to early examples, including free CNG mass transit on major Kaduna routes and fare cuts on some Abuja NURTW-linked CNG corridors. The Federal Government says more than 120,000 vehicles have been converted, with over 400 certified conversion centres and more than 90 CNG refuelling stations nationwide.

Punch findings: fares largely unchanged in many states

Punch’s multi-state reporting, filed around the Independence Day holiday, listed Enugu, Anambra, Delta, Imo, Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Gombe, Edo, Plateau, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and Ogun among places where fares remained largely the same as the October target took effect.

In Anambra, passengers were still paying about N700 from Upper Iweka to Oba and roughly N2,000 from Awka to Onitsha, according to the newspaper. In Imo, drivers quoted Owerri–Akokwa at N4,500 and Owerri–Awka at as much as N9,000, saying they had not seen federal CNG buses. On the Sokoto–Kebbi corridor, commercial fares remained about N5,000 to N6,000. In Jigawa, passenger Isa Hamisu told Punch he was still paying N3,500 from Dutse to Kano: “There is no change. I don’t know which one is a CNG bus.”

Enugu’s government CNG buses charge a flat N300, against about N600 on commercial services such as Emene–Old Park, but limited routes and hours mean many riders still rely on dearer private operators. In Delta, the NURTW Summit Motor Park chairman in Asaba, Emeka Okoro, said the union had not received CNG buses and could not cut fares while fuel costs remained high.

Government response: monitoring start, not a one-day switch

Responding to Punch, Ahmed said Borno, Kaduna, Zamfara and Ebonyi were among states already reducing fares through CNG or electric vehicles. He stressed that 1 October was “not a be-all date that everything would happen at the same time”, but the point from which Abuja would track commencement on routes where alternative-fuel vehicles are in use.

He said Abuja CNG routes have been cheaper for years, that Lagos had just received about 20 CNG buses for LAMATA, that Kaduna runs free CNG mass transit, that Zamfara had launched 100 electric taxis, that Ebonyi offers free rides for some civil servants and students, and that Borno EV trips were charging about N15 against N200–N500 claimed on comparable commercial services. Channels Television separately quoted him saying a Gwagwalada–Abuja CNG bus could be “nothing less than 40 per cent cheaper”.

The Guardian separately reported that infrastructure and execution gaps — from uneven station coverage to long queues at some pumps — still risk limiting how far savings reach privately operated parks.

Uneven rollout and what happens next

Kaduna’s information commissioner, Ahmed Maiyaki, has said the state remains the only one offering completely free CNG-powered mass transit on selected routes, with about 100 buses and 3.2 million passengers carried in the first year. Elsewhere, progress is patchier: Edo says it will launch more than fifty 52-seater CNG buses later in the month; Osun’s information commissioner, Kolapo Alimi, told Punch the state was still waiting for promised federal CNG buses.

The picture that emerges is neither a clean nationwide failure nor a finished success. Presidential commitments and Pi-CNG deployments have cut costs on some government-backed corridors. For millions of passengers outside those networks, Punch’s Thursday checks suggest 1 October arrived with little change at the motor park gate. How quickly states convert fleets, expand refuelling and pass savings into published fares will decide whether the CNG transit push becomes broad relief — or remains a patchwork felt mainly where buses already run.

Featured image: BRT bus station, Obalende, Lagos (file photo, 2019). Photo: Omoeko Media / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.