Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu
The current fuel scarcity in the
country took a turn for the worse on Thursday as motorists and other
petrol consumers flocked filling stations in major towns nationwide in
what industry stakeholders described as panic buying fuelled by the
statement made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr.Ibe
Kachikwu, the previous day.
Kachikwu, who is also the Group Managing
Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, had on
Wednesday said despite the efforts being made by the Federal Government,
fuel queues would not completely disappear until May.
The statement was said to have also
raised the prospect of hoarding of petrol by some marketers who would
want to profiteer from the current situation.
On the Otedola Estate and Berger ends of
the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Mobil, Capital Oil and Oando filling
stations had long queues of desperate motorists and other customers,
which spilled onto the road and caused gridlock, while there was no
activity at the Conoil and the other Oando station on the axis as of the
time one of our correspondents checked.
The minister’s statement also worsened
the already bad fuel supply situation in Abuja, Kaduna and Nasarawa
states, as hundreds of motorists armed themselves with jerry-cans and
besieged the few stations dispensing petrol on Thursday.
Most of them were of the view that since
the scarcity would persist for the next two months, it would be wise to
fill up their vehicle tanks and stockpile petrol in jerry-cans pending
when the situation would improve.
A former President of the Trade Union
Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Peter Esele, said, “I think that statement is
very unfortunate. If you look at it on the surface, probably the
minister just wanted to tell Nigerians the way it is. But again, that is
what is on the ground. There is no need for us to colour the challenges
that we are facing.”
Esele, however, noted that the comment
had created a lot of panic buying in the system, saying, “That is where I
actually have an issue with the minister’s statement. He wanted to be
upfront. But being upfront means that you can also now unsettle and
unbalance the system.
“Right now, what we have is that the
system is unsettled based on the minister’s comment. What I would have
expected is that he informs his principal, who is the President and
Minister of Petroleum, then the principal will now know how to deal with
it and communicate to Nigerians effectively.
“Now, we are going to have those (marketers) who even have products who want to hoard and sell at very expensive prices.”
The Chairman, Nigeria Union of Petroleum
and Natural Gas Workers, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, said, “The
statement was a little bit blunt. Instead of deceiving Nigerians, he
(Kachikwu) made it known to them that there is no magic he can do. It
may not be up to that two months because it is not that he is not doing
anything; they are doing something tangible.
“The panic buying, which the statement
has created, is not good for the system, and it is even portraying this
government in bad light. But at the same time, it is a plus to us as
Nigerians so that we will prepare very well and be efficient in using
fuel.
“The pronouncement is going to create a
lot of maximisation of profit by the marketers. Some of them will be
hoarding. Can the Department of Petroleum Resources go for any
enforcement with this pronouncement? It is not possible because the
marketers, if they cannot get it at the controlled price, they will
comfortably be selling above the pump price. So, it is a very bad
signal.”
However, the Deputy Manager, Public
Affairs, DPR, Mr. George Ene-Ita, said the agency would clamp down on
any marketer found to be hoarding products.
“For us, it is a routine thing. Our people go out daily and whatever we see there, we take action as appropriate,” he added.
On the Kubwa Expressway, the two NNPC
mega stations located on opposite sides of the road had long queues and
motorists were determined to buy petrol even in their jerry-cans,
despite the fact that the outlets had prohibited the sale of fuel in
jerry-cans.
“What do you expect from us after the
minister has announced that the scarcity will last till May?” Ogbonnaya
Kalu, who armed himself with two 40-litre jerry-cans in front of one of
the NNPC mega stations, said.
Queues were also heavy in front of other filling stations like AA Rano, MRS, Conoil and Mobil along the expressway.
Similar situations were observed in the
Abuja city centre and in neighbouring states of Nasarawa and Kaduna, as
attendants in some of the filling stations were openly collecting N500
from each customer who wished to fill their jerry-cans.
The NNPC on Thursday said it was doing
everything possible to end the noticeable fuel queues in most parts of
the country in the weeks ahead.
It also stressed that Kachikwu was misquoted on the issue of petrol scarcity dragging on till May.
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