Fuel scarcity persists, disrupts Xmas celebrations

It barely 48 hours to Christmas amid horrifying fuel queues, Abuja residents have resigned to fate with the conclusion that the 2017 yuletide celebrations may likely not be marked in their homes but at filling stations where they will be languishing on queues to buy petrol for their cars and generators.

That possibility was amplified on Friday where what could be regarded as the mother of all queues was recorded in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Many stations were empty and the few ones that sold petrol were swamped with thousands of vehicles, leading to horrendous traffic snarl that engulfed the city.

Despite the worrisome development, the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and its agencies continue to assure Nigerians, leaving them to conclude that the ugly turn may have overwhelmed the government. 

Moses Pwajok, a businessman said on Saturday Sun that he spent almost five hours under the scorching sun and parted with a N1,000 bribe before he was able to buy petrol at the NNPC mega station along Kubwa-Zuba road yesterday.

“I’ve never seen this sort of hell before. This is a bleak Christmas for Nigerians honestly. Even if they bring all the petrol trucks in Nigeria into Abuja, this crisis I am seeing can only ebb after Christmas. Everyday Kachikwu and Lai Mohammed will be speaking grammar on television about plans to end this mess but as you can see, whatever proposals they have in place are just not working”, he lamented. 

For Dotun Tanimola who claims to have spent four hours in Lugbe but was very unlucky to get as the station abruptly shut down claiming to have run out stock. “It was like a bullet piercing my heart. I wasted the little petrol in my car and at the end, I got nothing. What could be more devastating than that. I’ll try elsewhere and if I don’t get, tomorrow, the search continues”, he stated.

“Let the government do something urgently. This is like adding salt to injury. We are already scalded by poor electricity supply, no salaries, harsh economy and now petrol scarcity? This is just too much”, she groaned.

The NNPC insists it has sufficient stock of petrol to supply Nigerians for the yuletide and beyond but the dry depots and empty retail outlets point to the contrary.

Again, the NNPC has a huge distribution challenge as it is currently the major importer of petrol since oil marketers say they could not guarantee fresh imports if they cannot sell at N185/litre, as the current N145/litre threshold had become a business suicide following the increase in the price of petrol in the international market.

The entire quagmire has left consumers with no option than to engage in panic buying because the calculation is that a totally unprepared NNPC becoming the sole importer and distributor of petrol cannot guarantee sufficient supplies always. 

Till date, demand has continually outweighed supplies and the queues have continued to grow. The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday, December 6, gave Dr Ibe Kachikwu a marching order to end the scarcity nightmare within few days. But the days have stretched to weeks with no end in sight.