Two days after fuel scarcity suddenly surfaced in various parts of the country, commuters in Lagos and Ogun are not only spending hours at the filling stations but are buying at an unofficial pump price of between N197 and N200 as filling stations have adjusted their pump prices.
The immediate consequence of the pump price hike also is that Nigerians are beginning to feel the pinch as transportation fare has increased and if scarcity persists, the whole economic activities could be impacted negatively.
Many of the filling stations visited by our correspondents have already adjusted their pump prices to N200 from between N180 and N185 even as the fuel scarcity has created black marketing as usual.
A black marketer in Ijesha Lagos, who does not want her name on print, told our correspondent that a litre of fuel which sold at N200 now sold as high as N300 to N350.
Narrating how he managed to get fuel for his vehicle, a motorist who identified himself as Tunde said he had tried to get the petrol products from several fuel stations on Wednesday morning but to no avail before he finally bought at Oando filling station, located at Yaba- Ojuelegba road, after waiting for long hours in the queue.
“I tried buying fuel from different filling stations in Ijesha, Itire, and Ojuelegba but succeeded in getting it at Yaba, it was not easy after the long queue and delay,” he said.
David Omole, a filling station attendant at NNPC filling station Yaba, after Jibowu bus-stop told our correspondent that the scarcity has caused the filling station to close down waiting when another product will be available.
In the same vein, filling stations around Oshodi, Ikeja, Mushin, Yaba and Ijesha were seen closed down owing to the scarcity.
The scarcity of petrol products has compelled commercial bus drivers to jerk up their fare in some areas in Lagos.
Hike in transport fare
The scarcity is threatening as it has affected the cost of transportation and might impact on foodstuffs if it persists, Kayode, another motorist, told our reporter.
“The Government and concerned bodies should act fast, though it has not affected transportation fare, we still carry N150 from Yaba to Ijesha but I am afraid the price will change soon,” he said.
Tochukwu Okeh, a business owner in Oshodi and resident of Berger lamented that “transport fare from Berger to Oshodi area that used to go for N300 has increased to N400 on Wednesday.
“While commercial vehicles moving from Oshodi to Egbeda raised their fares from N200 to N300 while those plying the Cele express to Oshodi axis jerked up the fare from N200 to N300,” a passenger who identified himself as Emmanuel Obinna, lamented.
In some cases, the increase is N50 while it is an N100 addition on most routes in Lagos.
From Life Camp to Area One in Abuja which hitherto was N200, taxis now charge an additional N50 as many fueling stations have stopped selling having exhausted their supplies.
One of the passengers decried that the rise in the price of the transportation fare was not his problem but time wasted while queuing in the filling station after loading.
IPMAN disclosed the cause
InsideBusinessNG reported the previous day that the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Western Zone, has attributed the recent increase in the pump price of fuel to the hike in private depot prices.
Dele Tajudeen, the chairman, while condemning the increase had hinted the depot price of fuel has since last week been increased from N148.17 per litre to N178 per litre.
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According to him, none of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPC) depots has products and the private depots took advantage of the situation to hike the price to sell between N195 and N200 per litre within Lagos, Ogun and Oyo state, and N200 and N210 in Kwara, Ondo, Osun, and Ekiti states.
Experts mock NMDPRA
But the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) claims there is adequate premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as fuel, in the country.
Farouk Ahmed, the chief executive officer, has told THE PUNCH that Nigerians should not engage in panic buying as there is sufficient stock.
Ahmed was quoted as saying that he confirmed with the executive secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) as well as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited that there is sufficient stock and that he had directed both of them to start evacuating the product immediately to filling stations.
However, Bala Zakka, a public affairs commentator and an expert in the energy sector, dismissed the statement, arguing that if there was sufficient PMS in the country it would be evidence.
The claim that there is the availability of refined petroleum products has always been an issue, he lamented.
“It is very practical and evidence that as far as consumers are concerned, there is a scarcity of that product,” Zakka maintained.
Reacting also to the NMDPRA comment, Joe Nwakwue, a policy analyst and past-chairman of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Nigeria Council, said, “We have the wrong industry structure. Certainly a single supplier market with significant cross-border leakages and massive state subsidies is a recipe for rent extraction and dysfunction.
He suggested that the country takes the bull by the horn and fully liberalise the downstream market.
Importation and deregulation are not the way-out
According to Zakka, the importation and deregulation of the price of aviation fuel, diesel, and kerosene have not only destroyed those sectors but also the Nigerian economy.
“As long as we continue with the thinking that importation and deregulation are the way to go, the economy of this country will sink,” he said, questioning that nobody in the government cycle, economist or government adviser or agency has come out to tell Nigerians what have been benefited by deregulated the price of aviation fuel, diesel, and kerosene.
“The only product whose price is yet to be deregulated is PMS. So, when I hear the government say subsidies on PMS will be so and so in the next few months, the question I ask is what would have happened assuming the government did not deregulate the price of aviation fuel, diesel, and kerosene. Does it mean our subsidy would have been like N50 trillion? He queried.
According to Zakka, subsidies will come down the moment Nigeria decides to emphasize internal refining and domestication of petrol.
He said, “Nigeria is the only country, to the best of my knowledge, among the OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) nations that cannot sufficiently provide for her citizens, and is bent on the idea that importation of petroleum is the way to go.”
It is very clear that some people are bent on destroying the country, he asserted.
It seems obvious that the recent development could be led to an official declaration for an increase in the pump price of fuel. Zakka said, “I would not be surprised if there is an increase.”
He, however, warned that the continuous increases in the pump price of fuel will not only increase the cost of living and collapsed the economy but also would increase armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution, yahoo-yahoo, and other social vices.
