1st February, 2011
The number of problems an average Nigerian faces on a daily basis seems to be growing by the day.
During the festive period, prices of food items such as rice, tomatoes, onion etc skyrocketed. Two months after the festive period, things have still not returned to normal.
Just last month, bakers across the country decided to compound the woes of consumers by increasing the price of bread by 10 per cent.
As if that is not enough, since last week, prices of kerosene and cooking gas has again gone up, while government looks the other way.
Consumers’ Advocate checks revealed that the major sources of both domestic gas and kerosene are currently out of stock, while prices at retail outlets have increased by over 50 per cent, causing users to groan.
This ugly situation according to our finding was as a result of Federal Government’s closure of four refineries due to incessant attacks on the pipelines that supply crude.
The four refineries include two in Port Harcourt, with a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels per day, the 125,000 barrels per day Warri refinery and the 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna refinery.
Since then household kerosene which is subsidized by government now sells at over N120 per litre at various filling stations in Lagos as against the recommended retail price of N50 per litre.
The situation according to reports is likely to worsen as there is no immediate measure to close the supply gap in the market following alleged reluctance of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to issue import licenses to marketers.
A source in the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), said NNPC has not supplied the market kerosene for a year now, forcing dealers that run out of stock to enter third party supply deals at higher costs.
The source said it was difficult for the marketers to stake funds on importation of kerosene because, according to him, the commercial pricing status of the product is not established in concrete terms.
Also, the price of domestic gas has shot up to over N4,000 per 12.5 kilogrammes of the clean burning fuel at organised retail outlets as dealers grapple with scarcity of the products which is exported from the country.
Another source said the sharp rise in the prices of both domestic kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) also called cooking gas was a product of scarcity in the market, adding that most of them had to procure the products third party suppliers at higher prices.
Market sources said the exclusive license for importation of kerosene was awarded NNPC by PPPRA, making it difficult for the marketers to source the subsidized product independently.
Surveys showed that major petroleum products depot operators in Lagos that normally stock imported products for NNPC did not have kerosene since last week, a situation that gave rise to price manipulation by retail dealers.
Cooking gas sources in the local market also pointed at shortfalls in the supply of the product to the local distributors of the product, decrying round-tripping of the same products exported from Nigeria at the international market.
They blamed the producers of LPG in the country for not making adequate supply to the domestic market before pushing the products into the international market from where they target higher margins in dollar revenue.
A source who spoke on the issue said the domestic market could not absorb the volume of cooking gas produced by multinational oil firms in the country, wondering why regulators in the industry have allowed the domestic market to be starved of supply while international market is full with petroleum gas from Nigeria.
Some consumers who spoke to consumers advocate on the issue said.
“This kerosene is an essential commodity, it is central to our living as wives and we continue to wonder why the government should allow us to suffer before we can buy it at high prices,†a housewife who simply identified herself as Mummy Ayo said in Yoruba.
She added that “many of us in sub-urban areas have been forced back to be using firewood for cooking as a result of the exorbitant prices.â€
Her view was corroborated by Dupe Soretire who was on the long queue for kerosene at the mega station of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) along Iju road.
When told that the product was not under the government’s regulation, Soretire retorted: “What kind of nonsense is that? Are you saying that nobody can do anything about this?â€
Consumers’ Advocate appeals to government to urgently do something about this situation as kerosene is the lifeline of many poor Nigerians.
