8 May 2009
editorial
Lagos — Nigerians have, yet again, been exposed to hardship occasioned by fuel scarcity, and the current sad situation should compel government to take drastic action that would lead to a permanent solution to the seemingly unending horror.
Virtually all the filling stations across the country are either empty of vehicles based on claims that they do not have Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) otherwise called petrol or they are literally turned to battlefields when they have, as people desperately fight to purchase the product.
As a result of the scarcity, the cost of transportation as well as the prices of some goods and services skyrocketted.
In the midst of the confusion, information concerning the cause(s) of the current crisis and the way out of it have been even more befuddling for distressed Nigerians.
From the maze, however, it has come through that the major marketers slowed importation of petrol, waiting for the Federal Government to make its position clear on the issue of deregulation, hence a shortfall in supply.
It has also come through that most filling stations have fuel but are hoarding the product, expecting that the cap on its price would be removed so that they can make more profit. This explains why stations that are locked in the afternoon on the pretext that they do not have fuel sell the products under cover of darkness at highly inflated prices.
The harsh fact that government is still unable to get the nation's refineries back to work has also been played up by the current crisis. Apart from the Warri Refinery and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) that is said to have wobbled back to work, the others are still comatose.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), through its Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Levi Ajuonuma, claimed early in the week that they had enough products to last the country for 20 days; but the question is, where are these products?
The bottomline is that motorists are struggling to buy fuel, commuters are groaning under the high cost of transportation and the country is generally in distress.
Beside the directive reported to have been given by the Presidency to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to close down any fuel station hoarding or diverting fuel, which apparently is not being enforced, no serious steps were being taken to resolve the impasse till the House of Representatives gave the leadership of the sector the marching order to supply fuel or lose their jobs.
We support the one-week ultimatum handed down by the House, but we counsel that whatever emergency measures are going to be put in place, to arrest this ugly situation should be what they are, stop-gap measures.
What must preoccupy both the legislators and the presidency must be long term, permanent solutions to a situation that has become perennial. It would serve no useful end if fuel floods the streets today and dries up tomorrow. Only a few racketeers who profit from such adhoc arrangements would smile to the banks.
While the emergency steps are being taken to ease the current pains of the nation, the federal legislators should take a wholistic look at the entire process of importation and distribution of petroleum products so far, especially the so-called subsidy, to expose the corruption and massive rip-off of the Nigerian people that is said to have characterised the process.
Many well-meaning Nigerians have also canvassed, strongly, the option of total deregulation of the down stream sector, to allow for more players to participate. This, it is argued, would not only make the products available all the time, but would dramatically drive the prices down, in the long run.
Those who have been corruptly enriching themselves via the subsidy bazaar are sure to continue to frustrate this option, but government must muster the courage to confront them while the citizenry must overcome the fear of anticipated jump in prices.
From the gains recorded with the deregulation of a sector such as telecommunications, it should become apparent that the current apprehensions may be baseless.
While at it, government should spare Nigerians the sour stories that have come to be associated with the repair of the refineries. They have become drain pipes and a source of easy money for corrupt officials who so often claim to be repairing one thing or the other. The solution, we believe, is for government to sell off those refineries and channel the proceeds as well as the subsidy to other critical sectors, like education and healthcare.
The environment should also be made conducive for those already licenced to operate private refineries as well as others who may want to invest in that sector to begin operation. The ultimate is for crude oil to be refined in the country for domestic use and for export.
Everything that needs to be done to achieve this must be done so that the reproach of scarcity in the land of plenty would become a thing of the past.
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This is the most reasonable editorial on this subject, ever. Nigerians must recognize the evil of government ownership of most services in a country of this size. The example of deregulation of telecommunication should have rid us of our phobia of private industry and production of services in the country. If our egocentric labour union bosses and other loud mouthpieces in the country, will keep all things in perspective, the problem of gasoline supply in the country could readily be resolved. If the NNPC is only limited to managing just the crude and leave the rest of the petroleum management (refinery, distribution and marketing) to private company, the country may quickly discover that what happened with telecommunication could happen to the rest of the economy. I only wish that the powers to be would listen.