Hello beautiful people of Hive,it's another beautiful and cool Wednesday to behold.Its really windy today in West Africa, Nigeria to be precise.
And today,I want to really raise an alarm at the level and rate of economic deterioration being witnessed in my beloved country Nigeria.
We are known as the giant of Africa for some reasons, we've the highest population in Africa,we have alot of natural resources beneath and above our soil,we make history in foreign lands,our names can be found on some milestones,etc.
We have the best peace keeping soldiers in Africa and question today is,why do we lack in the midst of plenty?
What an irony.
CRUDE OIL
This is known as the "BLACK GOLD" in Nigeria,crude oil has been our major natural resources that we continue to harvest everytime,at some point,it was said that Nigeria has the best crude oil in the world and boom,we started making crazy sales, thousand upon thousands of Barrels of Crude oil being exported to various countries and sold at a very good rate,but it's unfortunate that out of over a thousand products that can be gotten out of Crude oil, Nigeria has concentrated only on PMS(Premium Motor Spirit),LPG(Liquefied Petroleum Gas), Diesel and the other Kerosene.
While reading this,you might think we have these products readily available and affordable,but no,that's not the case.
We buy these products as though we are in a foreign country.
That has been the clear case of our BLACK GOLD. We now import Petroleum products into the country which is being sold to us at an unbelievable price.
A clear case study today is that I went to the gas station to refill my 7kg cooking gas. Was it cheap? No. Did I buy and leave immediately?No. Was there a long queue? absolutely Yes.
Not only did I stand in the queue for over two hours waiting for my turn,the gas station was selling gas per kg for 620 Nigeria currency.
If you do the math,you will realize that to fill a little 7kg gas cylinder bottle,you will have to spend exactly 4,340 Nigerian currency .
Also,you will have to be on the queue for as long as 2 to 3 hours standing and waiting patiently for your turn to purchase gas,that's if you're lucky it doesn't finish before it gets to your turn because that's also the case in this whole issue.
LONG QUEUE
You might also want to know why the long queue each time you visit the gas station, the reason is the scarcity of the said product,out of 7 gas stations around my vicinity that sell these products,they don't have it at the same time, except just one gas station. And what happens when you want to purchase gas,all roads leads to the said gas station. When the management finds out the reason for the high sale of gas,they immediately inflate their price to cease the opportunity to make extra cash which eventually runs into millions of Naira after the days sales.
This act does not exclude the Fuel we purchase too,the said station begin to hoard the product,only to start selling at night for a fee you won't believe,but because as a transporter,you need gas in your car to make money,they buy at that high rate and in the morning,transport fare doubles.
This has been our plight in this country,where anybody can just decide to inflate price of anything to double and the law does not bathe an eyelid to curb it.
Eventually,it becomes a chain reaction because it begins to affect cost of living, hospital Bills, transportation,etc,in all of these, salaries are being owed, including some private companies too,yet no increment when cost of living increases. This can simply explain the high migration of Africans to foreign Lands for Greener pastures.
Also these scarcity in the midst of abundance is simply because we now import same products we should be refining in the country. Our refineries have been occupied by snakes, scorpions,spiders,wild animals,yet workers in the same sector are still receiving salaries monthly for doing absolutely nothing.
Budgets are being released yearly to this effect and nothing is being done to alleviate the poverty of the masses.
It's really a pity, that the once giant of Africa both in Cocoa and oil production is being neglected. Nobody is looking into that industry to see how we can become the production giants again. My heart bleeds as I type this article,we are good citizens and we do not deserve the governance of scarcity in the midst of abundance.
All pictures are mine
