One of the moving songs by the ace reggae musician, Jimmy Cliff, is emphatic that “You can get if you really want, but you must try, try and try, you succeed at last”. It appears the authorities running the distribution of petroleum products in Nigeria have taken that song to heart. But as it is, the harder they try to check the worrisome level of fuel scarcity across the land, the farther away they get from achieving the desired result.
The shortage of petroleum products at Nigeria’s filling stations which commenced before the last Christmas season is very much around in the urban centers of the country, including Lagos and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, with about 80 per cent of the petrol stations in the capital city, said to be lacking the products to sell.
The irony is that the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, had assured everyone that the country had seen the last of fuel scarcity. He stressed that the corporation had put machineries in place to ensure adequate supply of petroleum products in 2018 and beyond.
In the Central Business Districts of Lagos and Abuja, and outskirts of the cities, as well as in the regional capitals – Kaduna, Kano, Ibadan, Enugu and Port Harcourt – majority of the petrol stations were shut while the few that were selling the commodity recorded long queues of motorists.
However, the General Manager, Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, insisted that the organization had robust stock of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, known as petrol, sufficient to serve the nation for more than 30 days. Mr. Ughamadu charged motorists in Abuja, its environs and other parts of the country not to engage in panic buying of petroleum products.
The NNPC Public Affairs Manager explained that this became necessary on the heels of queues noticeable in some fuel stations, especially in Abuja and Lagos, while he advised motorists to report any marketer selling fuel above N145 per litre or hoarding the products to the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, statutorily empowered to deal with such issues.
Mr. Ughamadu said, “Law enforcement agencies would mete out appropriate sanctions to operators of fuel stations who engage in hoarding or sell products above the recommended price.” Despite these assurances, long queues dotted the few petrol stations opened to motorists, while many filling stations across the country were closed to motorists.
At the few petrol stations that were dispensing the commodity, the queues of vehicles stretched up to four streets around the point of sale, while the NNPC mega stations in the big cities have continued to witness very long queues of motorists. The NNPC has continued to assure motorists and other fuel consumers that the situation would soon return to normal.
