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ABOUT two weeks ago, I drove to a fuel station along Ijoko road, Otta, Ogun State where I live to buy fuel at the cost of N180 per litre which is the selling price whenever there is fuel scarcity instead of the official price of N165.
With my fuel tank almost empty, I couldn’t afford to drive too far to find where I could get the fuel at the official rate or less than N180. Unknown to me, the station has even increased its price to N200 per litre. Apparently, that was what the attendant was trying to tell me which I didn’t pay attention to since I saw N180 on the dispensing machine.
When he told me how much I was to pay, I said he was wrong and he responded that he told me a litre was N200.
I had no choice but to pay. Two weeks after, the same station is still selling for N200 per litre. The station manager says he cannot afford to sell at a loss, claiming that that is the price he can sell considering what it costs him to get the fuel to his station and other variables.
I and others who bought at N200 have the option of not buying from the station if we insist on the official price. We can keep vehicles at home or join the long queues for hours where we can get fuel for a lower price.
Across the country, there have been fuel scarcity and the price per litre where motorists are lucky to get to buy varies. The official price for fuel, diesel has become unrealistic according to the Public Relations Officer of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, Chief Chinedu Ukadike because the products are all imported and Nigeria is heavily dependent on imports because the refineries are not working.
“The private tank farms are now used to supply petroleum products to marketers. We are now left in their hands and whatever they sell to us, we will mark up our margins and sell to customers, the end users,” Ukadike explained.
Many man hours are lost at work as many organizations are increasingly finding it difficult to operate at full capacity without electricity. The price of diesel has become unaffordable. Some banks and companies have adjusted their opening and closing time, broadcast stations now stay on the air for fewer hours than they used to. The cost of production by companies has increased so much that they have increased the prices of their products and services.
While there may be some other factors responsible for the present scarcity and high cost, including the Russia-Ukraine war, what we are paying for as a country is years of mismanagement of our abundant resources which unfortunately is not improving.
If our refineries have been properly managed over the years and money allocated for enhancing the facilities in the sector properly utilized and not embezzled, we should not have found ourselves in a situation where fuel scarcity has become frequent with no indication that the situation will get better.
Fuel subsidy has become a channel for siphoning so much money from government covers by those profiting from it.
Despite not processing crude oil in June this year, three refineries in the country still cost N10.23 billion in expenses, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The refineries, located in Warri, Port-Harcourt and Kaduna, processed no crude because of the rehabilitation works being carried out on them.
We definitely cannot continue the way we are now with the crippling effect of fuel scarcity. The government has to do what is necessary to ensure our refineries have the capacity to generate a sizeable amount of fuel and other product requirements considering the amount being spent on them. Hopefully, the licensed private refineries will boost fuel production in the country, but until then, we remain at the mercy of fuel stations that decide how much they will sell per litre.
-The Nation
KN
Tags: Chinedu Ukadike Fuel Subsidy NNPC
