03/09/2026
I have seen enough posts and comments since Uber announced that it was leaving Nigeria to know that some people have already found the next people to blame.
The drivers.
Now the story is that Uber drivers were always going offline, asking passengers to cancel rides, demanding higher fares or asking to be paid outside the app, and somehow that is why Uber started losing users.
At this point, I honestly would not be surprised if a memo to Agbado WhatsApp group saying, "Blame the drivers."
Because as usual, anything is better than holding APC, Tinubu, the ministries, regulators and the agencies that are supposed to protect consumers accountable for the mayhem Nigerians are dealing with.
And there is one very obvious problem with this driver argument.
Do people actually think Uber, Bolt and inDrive have completely different sets of drivers?
They don't.
Many drivers have all three apps on their phones and rotate between them depending on where they are getting rides.
It is the same driver pool moving from one platform to another.
And really, how many Nigerians can even afford cars today for people to imagine that every ride-hailing company has its own separate army of drivers?
Buying and maintaining a car in Nigeria is already expensive enough.
And even among the people who can afford cars, most are not using them to drive for Uber, Bolt or inDrive.
So no, these apps are not operating with three completely different tribes of drivers.
That is why I find it funny when people suddenly start talking about "Uber drivers" as though Uber recruited them from another country.
And let me also say something from my own experience.
Uber was my go-to ride-hailing app for years, and one of the reasons was the behaviour of the drivers.
I almost never had an Uber driver call me and start negotiating a completely different fare from what was showing on the app.
I almost never had an Uber driver arrive and tell me to cancel the ride so we could go offline.
The app where I had that experience more often was another one whose name starts with B.
You book a ride and before the person even starts moving, the call comes.
"Madam, how much is showing?"
"Madam, add money."
"Cancel am, make we go offline."
That was not the Uber experience I was used to.
And the other popular app has had enough bad reviews over the years that I personally would not recommend it casually to someone I care about.
I remember asking a friend of mine years ago why some drivers would behave so professionally and respectfully when they were using Uber, then switch to a completely different attitude when they were using another app.
His answer was simple.
Uber was strict.
And it made sense.
Uber had a culture.
Drivers knew complaints could affect them.
They knew ratings mattered.
They knew trips were tracked.
They knew riders could report them.
They knew there were consequences if they kept behaving anyhow.
And this is one reason many riders trusted Uber.
Even some drivers complained about it.
I have had drivers tell me directly that they preferred other apps because Uber listened to riders too much.
Some felt Uber was too quick to respond to passenger complaints.
Some felt the platform protected riders more than drivers.
And whenever I heard those complaints, I understood something.
The thing some drivers disliked about Uber was probably the same thing that made many passengers trust it.
Uber made people feel that somebody was listening.
If something happened, there was a record.
There was a driver's name.
There was a car number.
There was a trip history.
There was a rating.
There was a complaint system.
That structure mattered.
And for many Nigerians, especially women, Uber was not just about getting a car from Point A to Point B.
It was about feeling safer.
You could share your trip.
Someone could follow your movement.
You knew who was driving you.
The driver also knew there was a digital trail.
That kind of accountability changes behaviour.
So when I see people saying Uber drivers were always taking passengers offline, I can only say that was not my experience.
And even when drivers do these things on any platform, shouldn't we still ask why it is happening so often?
Why is a driver looking at the fare on the app and deciding the trip is not worth it?
Why is he asking for extra money?
Why is he trying to avoid commission?
Why is he struggling to make enough from the fare?
Petrol is expensive.
Car maintenance is expensive.
Tyres are expensive.
Spare parts are expensive.
Servicing is expensive.
Some drivers are paying daily or weekly returns to the owners of the cars they use.
Then they spend hours sitting inside Lagos traffic burning fuel.
The passenger is also struggling and wants the cheapest ride possible.
Everybody is squeezed.
That is the Nigeria we are in.
But instead of asking how government policies have contributed to the pressure on both passengers and drivers, some people would rather stop the analysis at "greedy driver."
Very convenient.
And if the problem is truly widespread driver misconduct, where are the agencies that are supposed to protect consumers?
Where are the regulators?
Where are the transport authorities?
Where is the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission?
If Nigerians are constantly being forced to cancel trips, pay outside the app or negotiate fares after booking, shouldn't somebody be looking at the entire ecosystem?
Or is accountability only for the driver trying to survive?
We saw a similar thing with the FAAN controversy.
An internal memo dated July 30, 2026 directed airport managers to stop Uber and Bolt commercial operations at FAAN-managed airports while licensing issues were being sorted out.
Then the complaints started.
By August 20, FAAN was saying there was no blanket ban.
By August 27, the Aviation Minister had to intervene after Nigerians complained about ridiculous airport transport fares.
One passenger was reportedly quoted ₦30,000 from Lagos airport to Ikeja while ride-hailing apps were showing a fraction of that price.
Eventually Bolt was cleared to resume.
And then on September 2, Uber announced it was leaving Nigeria.
Uber has said the airport controversy was not the reason it left, and I am not going to invent a connection.
But Nigerians are allowed to ask questions about the kind of environment businesses are operating in.
That is the part some people do not want to hear.
They will blame drivers.
They will blame passengers.
They will blame competition.
They will blame traders.
They will blame landlords.
They will blame business owners.
They will blame anybody they can find.
But somehow, the people actually running the country must never enter the conversation.
Even when policies are making businesses harder to run.
Even when consumers are struggling.
Even when companies are leaving.
Even when unemployment is already terrible.
Even when the people defending these politicians are also suffering.
That is what I find sad.
Poor Nigerians are often the first people to defend politicians who are completely insulated from the hardship they are defending.
The politician has official cars.
Security.
Allowances.
Access.
Connections.
Options.
The ordinary Nigerian defending him online is the one calculating whether he can afford fuel tomorrow.
He is the one praying his landlord does not increase rent.
He is the one whose brother has been looking for work.
He is the one whose wife is struggling to keep her business alive.
Yet somehow, holding Tinubu accountable offends him more than the condition of his own life.
I will never understand that.
And I definitely will not join people in rewriting Uber's history in Nigeria just because blaming drivers is easier.
Uber was not perfect.
No company is.
Some drivers misbehaved.
Some passengers also misbehaved.
Some drivers probably felt Uber treated them unfairly.
But Uber built a system that many riders trusted because it demanded a certain level of professionalism.
That was part of its value.
Now Nigeria is losing that option.
And instead of asking why a company that entered Nigeria in 2014 has decided in 2026 that staying here no longer fits its plans, some people are busy blaming the same drivers who will probably open Bolt or inDrive tomorrow and continue working.
Those drivers did not remove the fuel subsidy.
They do not control the naira.
They do not determine interest rates.
They do not make transport policy.
They do not regulate the airports.
They are not responsible for consumer protection.
They are Nigerians trying to survive the same economy the rest of us are trying to survive.
Maybe we should stop looking for powerless people to blame every time something goes wrong.
The people at the top asked for power.
They campaigned for it.
They got it.
Let them carry the responsibility that comes with it.
- Iniobong Udoh II
