The last five weeks have been hellish for Nigerians, no thanks to the government’s incompetence and insensitivity.
It all started with the emergence of queues in fuel stations across the country. Both the government and Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited blamed it on the importation of fuel with high level of methanol by four companies. They explained that the contaminated product had to be withdrawn, which resulted in the scarcity experienced by the people. They promised to redress the matter within a week. But five weeks after, many stations still do not have fuel to dispense to customers. The fuel scarcity escalated the hardship of Nigerians and resulted in a phenomenal rise in transportation fares as well as prices of myriad of items because at a point a liter of PMS, which ordinarily sells for between N162 and N165, went for as high as between N300 and N500.
Then came the turn of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), known as diesel. The price of the deregulated petroleum product hit the roof, moving from about N300 per liter in January to about N625 last week. Not only has the price of diesel, which most manufacturing companies depend on to power their machines and run their distribution trucks gone up, it has also become very scarce. This development has shot up the cost of production and has also made it difficult for manufacturing companies to produce optimally. So bad was the situation that last Thursday, a train which was moving from Lagos to Ibadan stopped abruptly in the middle of nowhere as it ran out of diesel. This resulted in the loss of many man-hours as commuters were stranded for a considerable time.
Although there is no official reason for the scarcity and hike in price of diesel, some people have blamed the development on the Russia-Ukraine war. According to some commentators, the war precipitated a rise in the price of crude oil to about $130 per barrel. This, they claimed, increased the price of imported diesel and the increase in the price has put a cap on the ability of importers to bring in the product.
While Nigerians were still lamenting the difficulty foisted on them by the increase in the price of diesel, the price of aviation fuel, known as Jet-A1 also skyrocketed. Just like diesel, not only has the price of aviation fuel gone up by almost 100 per cent, it is not readily available. The sharp rise in aviation fuel price led to some domestic airlines either canceling or rescheduling their flights with many passengers being stranded. Scared by the implications of the aviation fuel shortage, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) last Thursday alerted the nation to the fact that it might shut down the nation’s airspace to ensure the safety of air passengers.
The rise in the price of PMS, diesel and aviation fuel has limited movement, hindered manufacturing activities and impeded business. Now, when a people’s production capacity is capped with the additional burden of restriction on moving themselves and their products, how will the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grow? If the GDP shrinks, the nation’s liquidity is hampered and the people’s poverty becomes pronounced. So, the effect of this fuel shortage crisis is a worsted economy and an impoverished people.
It is sad and saddening that despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria has no functional refinery. This is the cause of the problem the country has been facing with fuel price increase and shortage. If Nigeria had functional refineries, the case of anyone importing contaminated fuel would not have arisen. If Nigeria’s refineries were functional, the rise in crude oil price, which shot up the prices of diesel and aviation fuel, would not have been an issue. So, the government has done the people in by allowing the refineries to go comatose.
But in spite of this dereliction of duty, the government does not see itself as culpable. Both the Minster of State for Petroleum Resources, Sylva Timpre and the NNPC continue as if Nigerians deserve what is happening to them. The country is almost grounded for lack of fuel and those who are supposed to solve the problem go about as if Nigerians should be rewarded with deprivation by the government they installed.
Perhaps more shocking than the government’s ineptitude and lack of empathy is the equanimity with which Nigerians are taking all of these. Nigerians have been so bruised and battered that they are so comfortable with being bruised and battered. Nigerians have been so abused by those they put in office that their expectations have gone abysmally low. Rather than fighting the government who brought them to this point, Nigerians have been fighting one another. Rather than calling the government out to do what is right, Nigerians have been adjusting to the inconvenience the situation has forced on them. Instead of protesting the deafening silence from the government since the development started, the people have been making excuses for the government’s inexcusable quietness.
So, arising from the above, it is safe to predict that what happened to PMS, AGO and Jet-A1 will happen to kerosene. If marketers brought in contaminated fuel and the government folded its arms, if they revved up the price of diesel and aviation fuel and the government looked the other side, then Nigerians should brace up for an increase in the price of kerosene. This is not a prophecy of doom. Whatever affects diesel and aviation fuel is sure to affect kerosene because all of them have been deregulated by the government. The only saving grace would have been government intervention. But since the government has opted to throw Nigerians under the bus, kerosene will soon become scarce and expensive. It is just a matter of time.
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