12th May, 2015
By Tayo Ogunbiyi
It started like a trivial development that would soon fizzle out with time. Most government officials that spoke about it gave a glimmer of hope that all will soon be well. We were told that within a couple of days the market would be flooded with petroleum products and that the pains of Nigerians would soon be over. But quite surprisingly, the fuel scarcity being experienced across the country lingers on. After more than two weeks of waiting in vain to get this all important product Nigerians are becoming agitated because of the ensuing agonies and frustrations associated with the scarcity of petroleum products. Most filling stations in major cities across the country have become a beehive of activities with multitudes of people waiting endlessly for the scarce commodity. In the few places where the product is available, it is being sold at very exorbitant prices which make it beyond the reach of the ordinary folks.
In Lagos, motorists and commuters are groaning under the heavy yoke of fuel scarcity. From all indications, this particular episode might take a bit longer before it subsides. Feelers from experts in the sector have revealed that this current shortage might last for sometime, bearing in mind the fact that fuel marketers are not really sure about the likely attitude of the incoming Buhari administration towards fuel subsidy and other related matters. According to experts, the major marketers might want to be very careful with regards to fuel importation until they are certain about Buhari’s policy direction for the industry.
A major by product of crude oil, the availability of petroleum is crucial to the continuous survival of the country’s economy. Factories, companies, industries and, indeed, homes hugely rely on accessibility to this product, on a daily basis, for optimal performance. In essence, its non availability could disrupt economic activities considering the unreliable state of public electricity. For some time now, fuel scarcity is one plague, like corruption, that we are yet to find a lasting solution to in the country. Successive governments in the country have had to contend with this problem without achieving much success. At some point, especially when the fuel refineries in the country were no longer functioning at best possible capacity, the crisis became so alarming that Nigerians were spending days at filling stations just to get access to this all important product.
Characteristically, the few filling stations and ‘black market’ operators that are selling the product are ripping off Nigerians by selling at cut-throat prices in spite of the stress that people have to pass through to obtain the product. Consequently, civil servants, lecturers, students, health workers among others, are now battling with the adverse effects of the lingering scarcity. As it is customary, transport fares to various locations in the metropolis have sharply increased, with commercial bus drivers readily blaming inability to access the product as justification for the increase. Similarly, security at various homes, in the state, is being threatened as most people could no longer get the fuel to ‘power’ their generating sets. The implication is that Nigerians could no longer sleep with their two eyes closed.
It is sad that Nigerians have to suffer so much to get a product that nature has endowed the land with. Those that actually benefit from the oil wealth of the country are the few political and economic elites involved in dubious oil deals. What the masses often get is incessant increase in the pump price of the product. Of course, Nigerians are not new to such as succeeding administrations in the country have had to increase fuel prices on various occasions. A chronicle of increase in the prices of petroleum products in Nigeria reveal that every regime since Gowon has, at one time or the other, tampered with fuel prices for one reason or the other.
The Gowon regime that administered the oil boom era in the country increased fuel price from six kobo per litre to nine and a half kobo. Obasanjo, in his first coming as a military leader, increased the price from nine and a half kobo to fifteen kobo while the General Ibrahim Babangida-led military junta moved it up from 15k to 70k. The interim government of Chief Earnest Shonekan also increased fuel price from 70k to N5. The Sani Abacha-led military regime moved it from N5 to N11 while the General Abdusalam administration took it up to N20. Obasanjo, in his second advent, increased it to N70 while the administration of the late President Yar’Adua reduced it to N65. His successor, President Goodluck Jonathan, moved it to N141 before slashing it to N97 having met with stiff opposition from Nigerians.
He later reduced it to N87 following the drastic fall in oil price in the international market.
In recent times, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has come under heavy criticisms in view of its gross ineptitude and lack of accountability and transparency. It is rather shameful for a country reputed as the sixth oil exporting nation, in the world, to continually subject its citizens to the annual agony of fuel scarcity. The question, of course, is for how long Nigerians would continue to bear the burden of the incompetence of those who rule us? It is bad enough that our lives are being endangered as a result of security challenges. It is bad enough that public electricity supply has remained epileptic, in spite of several reforms and fund committed into the sector. It is, however, undesirable that Nigerians should continue to suffer before they could get access to fuel, a product that providence has blessed the country with.
It is hoped that the incoming Buhari administration would look into the various allegations of incompetence, lack of transparency and accountability being levelled against NNPC. Let the change that Buhari and his party clamoured for begin with the country’s oil sector. This is the time to sanitise the sector to ensure that probity and transparency become the order of the day. Nigerians do not deserve this endless suffering in the midst of plenty.
•Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.