The removal of the oil subsidy, early this week has begun to dictate the consumption pattern in Nigeria, with most consumers pruning down their daily spending as a result of sudden rise in the price of commodities across the market. Findings from the market revealed that drivers, artisans, who rely on petrol to carry out their daily activities and small-scale industrialists have jacked up their prices. At the Ojota main market in Lagos, passengers, who were returning from their various communities after the new-year break complained about the sharp variation between what they spent while going home and what they paid to come back to Lagos. Meanwhile, the rise in price has made most Nigerians to put restrictions on their daily needs. According to THISDAY findings, a substantial percentage of consumers now consider the importance of goods and services before approaching the market. Mr. Babatunde Oguntuase, 42, told THISDAY that he travelled to Ado Ekiti on the New Year eve with just N1,500 but had to pay as much as N4, 000 on Tuesday while coming back. Oguntuase, who described the situation as abnormal blamed government for not being sensitive to the feelings of Nigerians. “It is not only abnormal but the time was wrong, considering the rush that always comes with this season, a government with human face would have picked a different day. Personally, I don’t have anything against the removal of subsidy because I have the belief that it would be a blessing at the end but I don’t think the time was good,” Oguntuase said. However, for Mallam Abdulahi Sarafadeen, a member of the Kwara State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), oil marketers in the country should be blamed for the early problems that came with the Federal Government announcement. “Much as I cannot support the decision of government to remove the subsidy, I think we should also blame the oil marketers for their exploitative behaviour. I don’t think there was any reason for over N100 percent increment on the first day because the marketers have not started experiencing the new trend when they increase price,” Commenting on the present situation, a consumer activist and coordinator of the Consumer Advocacy Forum, Sola Salako, lamented the negative effect the FG pronouncement has on consumption.