Yesterday while in the saloon someone brought up an important issue, about the increase in fuel price in the country and we where all contributing to the matter on ground and a young man shared his story with us how Last month while he was traveling from Portsmouth to London with his mum. And that during their journey, out of curiosity, his mom asked, "Are there no filling stations in this UK? That she haven't seen any since She arrived."
The young man said he explained to his mother that there are indeed filling stations, but she might not have recognized them because they look different from what she’s used to here in Nigeria, and while they continued their journey he pointed out four to five filling stations to her. She was surprised that they were actually filling stations because hardly will you see up to five vehicles at a time in a filling station.
She had expected to see long queues of vehicles, as is common in Nigeria. Even me I would have asked the same question and think just like this man’s mum.
He said he explained that in the UK, there are no attendants selling fuel. Instead, customers simply drive in, take the fuel dispenser, fill their tanks, pay, and leave. I kept my mouth wide open in disbelief most of us in the saloon where surprised to hear this honestly.
The story of this young man led us to discuss how some countries, including the United Kingdom, don't have crude oil but still enjoy easy access to fuel. In contrast, Nigeria, blessed with abundant mineral resources including crude oil, struggles with long fuel queues and high prices which is indeed insane.
It’s disheartening to see Nigerians spend hours at filling stations, and struggle to buy fuel that should be readily available at high prices, despite the country's rich resources.
That’s why i concluded that the discovery of crude oil in Nigeria has, over time, proven to be more of a curse than a blessing.
Initially, the discovery of oil in the 1950s was met with great optimism, as it promised to catapult the country into economic prosperity. However, the reality has been starkly different. The oil wealth has fueled corruption at all levels of government, leading to the mismanagement of resources and a vast gap between the rich and the poor.
The heavy reliance on oil has also crippled other sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture, which was once the backbone of Nigeria’s economy. It’s so unfortunate that Nigerians have been reduced to the children of a meat seller that struggle just to get scraps of bone. Our religious leaders keep holding prayers upon prayers for the country without taking any action on bad Governance. We’re going to be where we are today if we as a country don’t raise to take action against bad governance in Nigeria.