Fuel crisis: a sore that won’t heal

Since early December when the nation woke up to see queues, endless queues of motorists-an ominous harbinger-in filling stations, the situation remains the same, three months after. This has made people to dub our present predicament as a sore of the nation; a sore of new decade, a sore that won’t heal no matter the prescription for it in this country, shamefully the largest oil producer in Africa, the sixth in the world.

Wasted efforts

Out of frustration, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Odein Ajumogobia, in January went cap in hand to the banks to talk them into resuming the funding of fuel imports by major oil marketers so as to end the lingering scarcity. But the efforts blew up in his face as the banks gave no assurance of opening lines of credit for the oil importers. They told him that they toed that line of action in the past. Now it qualifies their backs for the cudgel of their regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). 

“Some sell a litre between N80 and N100, while others ‘auction’ it at N120 or more, particularly in the rural areas as against the official N65”

Enter the jackals

As things stand now, the only importer of this essential commodity is the almighty Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). What it imports and stores as in-country stock can barely last the nation for two days as against 60 or more days in the past when the going was good. It then resorted to rationing and auctioning the product to the highest bidders among the marketers. This is responsible for the unofficial deregulation of the pricing system of petrol across the country. Some sell a litre between N80 and N100, while others ‘auction’ it at N120 or more, particularly in the rural areas as against the official N65. In the black market, it goes for as high as N200 in most cases. Some even divert the product to the neighbouring countries where they sell and make as much profit as they want.

Riot act

As the nation groans under the fuel problem, the black market racketeers are making the kill and smiling to the bank. This caused the Petroleum Minister, Rilwan Lukman, to read the riot act to NNPC, threatening to sack the entire management if they fail to find a lasting solution to the problem.

The NNPC has promised to end the crisis. As part of the move, the organization has set up a ‘War Room’ committee with a mandate to end the scarcity within seven days.The committee said it would deploy fleet of fuel tankers across the country to flood every filling station with fuel.

But many people are not enthusiastic about this as they believe that only massive importation can end the crisis.

Lasting solution 

The lasting solution, I believe, still lies in making the refineries work. Even if it means government's going into partnership with private sector and foreign investors on build, operate and transfer basis. 

Again, the government should step up the security at the borders to ensure that petroleum products are not diverted to other countries.

It is when these steps are taken that we can begin to see sanity return to the oil industry and the end to fuel scarcity in the country.