For the past couple of days, in many parts of the country including Abuja, the nation’s capital, the ugly sights of fuel queues have once again resurfaced, creating fear and panic about the cause and its long- term effects.While the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has maintained that it has enough supplies and that the public should not panic, the latter have continued to panic and many have resorted to the usual practice of panic buying and storage of the dangerous products.
Whenever there is fuel scarcity necessitating panic buying, it is most likely that the scarcity is artificial, the brain-child of speculators and marketers trying to test the waters for a possible hike in price. Across the country, the scarcity has led to marginal price increases which are illegal but which the consumer pays nonetheless, as there is little alternative.
In 2010, we were all witnesses to the tension generated across the country when there was a nation- wide protest over the plan by the present government to increase fuel price.
Eventually, the government and the oil marketers had their way, resulting in the largest single increase in the price of the commodity. With an election coming in less than 12 months from now, it is important to make it clear to those who make decisions in the oil sector that Nigerians would not tolerate another round of fuel price hike.
The Nigerian people have not recovered from the last one going by the excruciating poverty of the majority of Nigerians despite the claim by government that the nation’s economy is doing well, and that the country has become an attractive finance and investment destination.
Clearly, a lot is wrong with the management of NNPC and if the Jonathan government is not in alliance with the latter on the corruption that has taken over the activities of the corporation, it should sack the management. Perhaps, one argument that the corrupt NNPC and its allies would put forward is that there has been a reduction in the money allocated to fuel subsidy. The so-called fuel subsidy has been a conduit pipe to defraud government of billions of dollars. Efforts to deal with the corrupt fuel subsidy regime have always come to naught because of the weakness of the justice system and the nation’s tolerant disposition towards stealing by government officials and their cronies.
We are of the view that the recurring circle of fuel scarcity and its attendant consequences for the populace may never end unless something is done about improving the capacity of the country to refine petroleum products. Therefore, the government should put life into the existing refineries, build new ones or encourage the building of new ones and shelve the plan to privatise existing refineries. Also, as advised by some concerned Nigerians, perhaps it is time that the government reviewed upwards the number of crude oil barrels set aside for domestic consumption. The current 450,000 barrels which have been the standard for some years now may no longer be adequate in view of population changes and increase in economic activities.
It is embarrassing that a major oil producing country like Nigeria should suffer these periodic shortages in the availability of refined petroleum products. Considering that Nigeria has been with crude oil for more than half a century, it is a mark of questionable progress that the country still imports refined products from outside including countries like Niger Republic, a next door neighbour. Regular availability of petroleum products at reasonable price is something that Nigerians deserve as a matter of right.
