I'm sure is it no news to anyone here right now that fuel has been scarce in Nigeria lately. Not only has it been scarce, it has been expensive as well. I didn't really know this until recently coz I was shielded within the four walls of the University College Hospital, Ibadan. I hadn't really left UCH in at least over two months, so when I recently finished my exams on Tuesday and was journeying home, it came as a shock to me seeing long queues at filling stations.
Anyways, this fuel scarcity is simply the latest in the list of ways this current APC government has maximally failed the masses. Since the current Buhari-Osinbajo administration came into power eight years ago, Nigeria has been in a downward spiral that has only gotten considerably steeper with time. The decline of the value of the naira against the dollar is another staunch proof of that.
The Independent Petroleum Association of Nigeria(IPMAN) has attributed the current fuel scarcity to the unavailability of petroleum products and difficulty in accessing foreign exchange by marketers. The implications of this singular sentence are massive.
Let's start with the hell we have to be importing petroleum when we have a massive reservoir of crude oil in Nigeria. We also have four refineries, two in PortHarcourt, one in Warri, and one in Kaduna. We have tons of youth out there who have spent years in the labour market who jobs can be created for at these places. When we have everything at our disposal, why then do we have to spend tons of dollars importing petroleum from other countries if not for a heightened sense of irresponsibility and lack of accountability in our leaders.
Now, due to the cataclysmic destruction of the value of the naira against the dollar, the prices of petroleum importation have sky rocketed. Hence, marketers are importing a considerably less amount of petroleum for the same price they used to pay before. This has caused a reduction in the amount of petroleum that is in circulation. And of course, when a commodity is scarce, the price of the commodity shoots up.
Writing about Nigeria really always makes me sick. This country is just rotten to the core. I could continue writing for the next hour and it still wouldn't capture the depth of my feelings and thoughts about these issues. One thing is constant, the electioneering process next year will determine a lot. We hope the country gets reasonable leadership then.
Thanks for reading through.