•Elevated responses expected with President Buhari as Oil Minister
Just when Nigerians thought they had voted out scarcity of petroleum products and long queues at the dispensing stations, it seems they are back to square one. A situation that started tentatively and in isolated places at the beginning of November has lingered. It has also become more pervasive and widespread across the country with marketers giving indications that scarcity may be with us till Christmas.
The last petrol crisis was in the last days of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration just before the handover of government to President Muhammadu Buhari. Upon transition, the entire scarcity palaver had vanished as if the new president waved a wand. Suddenly, marketers who were whining over fuel subsidy payments seemed to reach an unspoken understanding with the new regime and pronto, fuel was everywhere in abundance and queues disappeared.
Most remarkably, the pump price normalized back to N87 per litre from as high as N300 per litre that petrol rose to at that time. Thus since June this year up until end of October, Nigerians had enjoyed a period of regular petroleum products supply at the regulated rate to the point that some people must have thought the ugly old days were over for good. Indeed, unfettered fuel supply has been noted as one of the gains of the Buhari administration and an example of his ability to make crucial changes in the polity without as much as lifting a finger – ‘body language’, it is called.
Following upon this new talisman, many had even argued that there was no subsidy after all. But the so-called subsidy was always there and was mounting in size over the past five months. Today, it is said to stand at about N413 billion and the federal government has been hit with that sum. But even though the government may be willing to pay, it is said that the time lag between payment and the next cycle of imports of products may take the scarcity to Christmas. There is also the issue of sourcing foreign exchange.
Here is how a marketer made the case: “In recent times, we have been having issues with getting enough forex for our deals. Now we have a huge sum ofN413 billion entering the system; loans will be paid in forex as well as payments for products from international suppliers.
The Central Bank of Nigeria is not giving us a clear directive in this regard. We will need forex but we do not know where to get it in this quantum. Right now, the truth is that marketers don’t know how to source forex with the recent CBN provision.”
While the prospect of Nigerians living with this grueling situation of fuel scarcity and high prices till Christmas may be dire, the real issue is that the new government of President Buhari is expected to have taken the country out of debilitating incongruence of suffering in the midst of plenty. Nigeria is among the top ten producers of crude oil in the world yet she cannot produce enough for domestic consumption.
In the last three decades or so, Nigeria has exported crude oil and imported refined petroleum products at a huge economic cost. Nigerians will expect a lasting solution now more than ever before. It may be time to review the so-called subsidy and cut it in phases; government must set up a few modular refineries in the next two years if only to refine for domestic consumption.
Nigerians who bear the brunt of this petrol paradox must be let down that the All Progressives Congress (APC) government has allowed this return to the PDP era and with President Buhari as substantive Petroleum Minister, we urge him to devise a long-term strategic solution to this malaise immediately.
Source: THE NATION
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