My colleague, Ikechukwu Amaechi, and I travelled from Lagos by road to the East on Easter eve, March 26. Before we travelled, the impact of the fuel scarcity in the last three weeks in March had become pronounced.
We did not need anyone to tell us what awaited Nigerians as Easter beckoned, and even after, when the driver carrying us refilled his fuel tank in Delta State at N150 per litre.
We did not buy or see anyone who bought petrol at less than N150 per litre in Imo and Abia States where we visited. The only good news from that part of the country is that fuel was available all filling stations, including micro filling stations with one nuzzle. We were amazed. Returning to Lagos on April 2 by road came with its own experience. My cousin who brought us had filled his tank in Owerri a day earlier, making it easy for us to leave as planned.
But while still in Owerri we got information that getting fuel in Lagos to buy was difficult, and that socio-economic activities had been brought to a halt. It was not until we had driven past Ore in Ondo State that the reality dawned.
In one of the filling stations at the boundary of Ondo and Ogun where we needed to refill our tank, a commercial motorist who had also stopped to buy petrol and overheard us complaining that the petrol attendant was selling at N180 per litre advised us to buy it quickly.
He even suggested we buy in jerry cans because “in Lagos getting fuel to buy is war because you cannot see it.”
The second test case came when my cousin dropped us off in Aja and we needed to board a cab to the mainland. Taxi drivers insisted on a fare of N10,000, an amount enough to convey two passengers from Owerri to Lagos in a normal situation.
To date, the situation has not substantially improved because Lagosians are grappling with the after effect. The possibility of things getting better in the days ahead seems remote.
This is where the meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Central Working Committee (CWC) last week in Abuja is important.
Labour evaluated certain developments in the country, including the lingering fuel crises and took certain resolutions.
My concern here is the strike Labour is mooting if the fuel situation is not permanently remedied.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said: “We dare say that one of the fastest ways for the government to lose its credibility before the ordinary citizenry is the scarcity of petroleum products, because the combined effects of scarcity of petroleum products and low power supply create misery for the people, as well as have a damning impact on travel, jobs, productivity and the economy as a whole ….
“It is gratifying to note that the government has straightened its relationship with the critical stakeholders (including IPMAN) which it says will henceforth guarantee regular supply at N86 per litre at NNPC filling stations and N86.50 at non-NNPC filling stations ….
“Without prejudice to the ongoing government’s initiative at finding a lasting solution, we believe the subsisting fuel scarcity is caused by an interplay of corruption in the system; the existence of a cabal that defies the structural changes at the NNPC; national and international politics around the production, sale and consumption of oil; sabotage in the management of the refineries; award of contracts for turn-around maintenance (TAM) without regard to the companies that built these refineries; and smuggling ….
“Also not helpful to the system is the regular friction or power play between lifters or distributors of products such as major marketers, independent marketers, the Association of Tank Farm Owners, and others in the distribution chain ….
“Accordingly, we call on the government to do the needful by demonstrating the will and capacity to restore sanity, discipline and transparency to the downstream sector of the industry ….
“The government should also deal summarily with the corruption in the sector. It should never allow itself to be blackmailed or cowed into taking decisions that in the long run will not be helpful to the ordinary Nigerians ….
“We demand the constitution of the boards of the NNPC and PPPRA. The latter is meant to be a 26-man board vested with the powers of regulating prices of petroleum products. Today, it is a one-man show.”
To say that Nigerians begged to buy petrol at between N250 and N300 per litre is unbelievable and scandalous. That is even where the product was available.
Chances are that the promise by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, that the product would be available in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt may not be realistic based on how long the current scarcity has lasted.
Those who ought to know what the issues are have found in Kachikwu the scapegoat. From President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as petroleum minister, to a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, who first put the whole blame on Kachikwu when he said he is not a magician, the hand writing is getting clearer by the day.
I am surprised that Tinubu recanted last week, blaming the mess on the past government of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and no more Kachikwu.
Whatever must have happened between the time Buhari summoned Kachikwu and now that supply is trickling in, the point must be emphasised that Kachikwu was clear-headed when he gave May as the appropriate time for safe landing on the fuel scarcity debacle, but that did not go down well with the cabal who saw in his comment a window of opportunity.
Buhari by now should know that full deregulation of the fuel business in line with market forces of demand and supply should apply.
No matter how market forces react to availability or non availability, it is doubtful if a litre of petrol would sell for between N250 and N300.
Entrenched interest in the downstream oil sector has worked more in the negative in Nigeria. All the actors are more concerned about the bottom line than the survival of the economy.
Petrol dealers divert the product away from places of supply to where the margin would make them super rich, surrounded by an army of very poor, frustrated, vulnerable and helpless Nigerians.
Is it by accident that in some parts of the country petrol is readily available because of criminally instigated “deregulation”?
For several weeks, businesses have been grounded. If the government takes a holistic evaluation of the cost of the petrol scarcity on our economy in the past weeks it would be shocking what the figures would reveal.
Buhari does not need to think again before he removes the fuel subsidy. Failure to do so will mean he is hobnobbing with the same cabal that has been dictating the tune for past administrations.
As the NLC suggests, it is time Buhari was decisive or he would have himself to blame.
He may still be enjoying the goodwill of most Nigerians who think what they are going through is temporary but the same Nigerians know of the existence of household enemies within the APC.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, told Labour leaders at the CWC meeting that “Nigerians did not vote for change for suffering. We didn’t vote change for agony, we didn’t vote change for tyranny, we fully endorse NLC resolution for the strike.”
The petroleum sector needs Buhari’s urgent intervention. It is enmeshed in naked corruption, nepotism, abuse of transparency and accountability.
Labour has a lot of work to do.
Subsidy is just a terminology that does no one any good. Those using Labour to kick against full deregulation are our real foes.
