Speaking on Sunday, President Muhammadu Buhari sympathised with Nigerians on the excruciating experiences that they have been going through in the last one month.
Indeed, it is time to ask serious questions: which organisation is responsible for the current crisis: the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), fuel marketers or the regulatory bodies?
What exactly is going on in the downstream sector?
Why should fuel crisis define life in Nigeria when such an experience is rare in other oil-producing countries?
Are they the only people in leadership positions? Is Nigeria’s oil wealth a curse?
It is necessary to ask these questions because life at the moment is too hard for the masses.
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and other regulatory agencies need to raise their game and come up with concrete suggestions on how the sector can move forward.
The government needs to deregulate the downstream sector and end the long queues at filling stations.
The experiences are horrendous. They must stop. Productive hours are lost to searching for elusive fuel and government must act fast before things get out of hand.
Joel Mamman
Abuja
and then