On Monday January 2, 2017, I happened to go to Oke-Gegelose, Ibadan, to purchase some cassava pudding for consumption.
At a point near the place, I approached a roadside kerosene dealer to buy some kerosene. I asked for the price per bottle. The woman said N200. I was alarmed because of the high price mounted on the commodity.
At first, I thought the woman was joking but when I went to another dealer in the same place, the story was the same. I began to wonder why this should happen.
In the first place, Nigeria is one of the world leading producers of petroleum. Secondly, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) officials often tell people that they have plenty of kerosene to sell and much to preserve in their depots.
Third, the lastest price regime is contrary to the expectations of the people, going by the promise made by the Federal Government during the electioneering campaigns that people would buy petrol, kerosene and other commodities easily and at affordable prices.
Be that as it may, there is still a vista for a redress of the problem. What I feel Federal Government should do in this regard is to tell the NNPC officials to supply kerosine in abundance to all authorised filling stations in the country and ensure that it gets to the real dealers who will sell at affordable prices to the people .
Interested Independent petroleum marketers should be allowed to import the product in order to prevent hoarding and exploitation of the people by the few privileged dealers.
Ola-Olaniyi Bamgbola,
Agbeni Quarters, Ibadan
