After spending a whole day in the filling station to get fuel, a colleague of mine asked the million dollar question, when will fuel queues ever stop in Nigeria?
Although Nigeria is the sixth largest oil producer in the world, fuel queues have become part of our life.
Since 1999, fuel scarcity, queues and black market sales in high-priced jerrycans have been a recurring decimal. They are no respecter of persons or parties, whether Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or All Progressives Congress (APC) or even military regimes, fuel queues have been part of our daily lives.
It’s a given that most car owners in Nigeria have jerrycans in their boots.
Sucking of fuel from a jerrycan into your car’s tank is a skill you must learn to stay ahead in the game.
In fact, some Nigerians have mini-fuel depots in their houses saving for the rainy day, waiting for the next fuel scarcity.
From 1999 when ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo took over, to the late president Umaru Yardua, Goodluck Jonathan and now Muhammadu Buhari, they have all failed to find a permanent solution to this crisis.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, first inspired public confidence as the only performer in the Buhari cabinet and gained the well-deserved reputation and trust for being the man in charge and master of the game of infusing order, efficiency and even profitability in a moribund and chaotic sector.
But in recent days, he is also fast losing the reputation as a man who cannot be held for his words, especially when he dropped a bombshell last week that generally, it’s cheaper to import fuel than to refine it.
Today, he will say the refineries are working, tomorrow another story, next, the Federal Government is unbundling the NNPC, tomorrow another story.
Nigerians are beginning to lose trust in Kachikwu, who cannot be held to his words.
In the spirit of the change agenda of this administration, a permanent solution should be sought to end fuel crisis once and for all in the country.
Let fuel scarcity later be stories that we will tell our children that once upon a time in Nigeria, fuel scarcity was the norm; but now it has become a bad memory.
-Leadership
