Luxury or necessity: What do cars mean to Nigerians?
If you’re Nigerian, one of your earliest experiences around cars might be at a thanksgiving service where people gathered to dance around a “new whip”, followed by an endless flow of “Congratulations” and “I tap into your blessing.” Well, there’s nothing wrong with this, really, but what this naturally does is make you see cars in a way that you might need to unlearn later.
Cars are seen as a luxury in many parts of Africa, and no, I don’t mean exotic cars. I mean the predominant tokunbo cars, which are essentially decades-old hand-me-downs from wealthier countries. This perspective is why the average Nigerian believes that a car — second-hand or not — is a wealth symbol and should command some form of respect. The truth is: identifying as a car owner might just be a Nigerian’s way of saying, “Treat me honourably. I deserve it because I’ve got a 4-wheeled machine.”
X-raying this behaviour leads one to the depressing reality that Africans are generally poor and the existing economic conditions have eclipsed the true meaning of cars. Cars were designed with one simple goal: efficient and convenient transportation. And despite the evolution of cars into wealth and status symbols, the fundamental reason for using a car is for mobility purposes. Ideally, this would be the idea when getting a car, but things are far from ideal in this part of the world.
“Before you get a car, make sure you have built your house o.”
This is a very common — but uninformed — advice many young Nigerians get when they start thinking about getting cars. The advice is premised on the asset nature of a home compared to the maintenance costs that accompany owning a car. What the advisers fail to realise is that public transport in Nigeria is mostly a mess, and sometimes, the only way to secure your spot in a public bus is to fight for it — and I do not mean that figuratively.
Twitter NG is rife with horror experiences about public transport, from unkempt and smelly bus conductors to fist-throwing louts who harass bus drivers intermittently. As if these are not enough, timeliness is hardly factored into how these buses operate. This means that a bus can conveniently wait — with you in it — for an hour or more if that’s what it takes for passengers to fill up the bus. And as these bus drivers hardly respond to their cars’ fuel needs until it gets to the reserve point, taking an unplanned detour to the filling station is the painful norm for public transport commuters.
Despite the toxicity — and traumatic experiences — that come with public transport, many would still shrug off the conversation about owning their own cars because they see cars as a luxury they’re not yet prepared — or old enough — to have.
Granted, the economic realities in Nigeria make it difficult for many to own cars, and those who can afford it end up proselytizing the gospel of exclusivity. But here’s what you should know about cars: cars are not that special, and if things were as they should be, every mature citizen should have the means to get one, even if it is by auto-financing options.
So, maybe it’s high time you — or someone in your circle — started thinking about getting a new car. For whatever reason you’d like a car: mobility, comfort, or status, we advise you to go for it. Our part is to cover the insurance!
