Motoring & Transport

What is the model of your first car?
It was a Nissan Sunny coupe (GTi).

How much did it cost you?
I bought it for N250,000.

When did you buy it?
It was on April 13, 2001.

Was it a brand new car?
A public sector worker in Nigeria, including medical doctors, can hardly afford to buy a brand new car in Nigeria.

Why did you go for that particular model and not another brand of vehicle?
I actually went out with the desire to buy a Mercedes Benz product or an Audi product, but the attraction of the Nissan Sunny coupe was irresistible, moreso when its type was rare at that time.  Indeed, it was very sporty and alluring.

Cars are really expensive these days, what do you feel about it and the drastic change in the economy which one could say is responsible for inflation in the country?
I feel extremely sad that prices of cars in Nigeria have been on a consistent upward swing. This is attributable to the fact that Nigeria, almost 50 years after political independence, still can’t boast of a made-in-Nigeria car, or even standard car assembling plants with high local content.

This situation is further worsened by the absence of purposeful government and leadership in Nigeria, as manifested in the pervasively dysfunctional experiment in political, social, and economic engineering by the country’s leaders. Low infrastructural base, low productivity, and a parlous economy, have all consistently and perennially conspired to engender a sky-rocketing inflationary trend in Nigeria.

Kaduna State government has approved about N138 million for the engineering design of the fourth Kaduna Bridge.The Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Saidu Adamu, recently disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of the state’s Executive Council meeting in Kaduna.He said the council had approved 50 per cent of the amount for release to the company handling the project.Adamu

Katsina State government has inaugurated an international linking route between the state and Niger Republic.This international route was recently inaugurated in state by government representatives.
One of the buses to ply the route was also recently purchased by by Katsina State Transport Authority (KTSTA).The chairman of the Governing Board of KTSTA, Alhaji Lawal Shema, who was at the