Indeed all is not well. Gradually, we have enthroned, crowned, institutionalised and entrenched absurdities as a way of life. In fact, doing the normal things now look abnormal while those who practise abnormalities are now looking like those with virtues worthy of emulation. At what point did this descent to anomie become validated and acceptable?
Today, it is acceptable and normal not to have petrol to buy from the filling stations but right in front of the filling stations are touts brandishing petrol for sale to motorists. As it is now, it’s more normal now than driving into a filling station to get petrol.
Of course, our oil chieftains at NNPCL think it is normal and are carrying on as though all is okay. Nigeria is the sixth largest crude oil producer in the world, yet I cannot get petrol to power my I-better-pass-my-neighbour generator to work from home from the filling stations. Since electricity has not only been priced beyond the reach of the common man, and because in my remote village, electricity is a rarity, I am left at the mercy of black marketers.
Was it Bob Marley of blessed memory who sang …in the abundance of water the fool is thirsty? Yes in the abundance of crude oil, arable land, clement weather and relatively regular rains, Nigerians are starving and hopping from one fuel queue to the other in search for petrol.
It cannot be a mere coincidence or happenstance that in all of Mele Kyari’s over nine years (since July 2019) as NNPC GMD not one of our oil refineries is working. It cannot be by chance that in spite of the several failed promises to get one of them working, the NNPC is still unable to deliver on its promises or meet deadlines it had set for itself.
This is a classical example of the abnormal coming to become normal. What NNPC, if you like you can add L, and the Nigerian government have failed to achieve, that one man called Aliko Dangote has achieved. Tells you how serious our leaders are. Should we just laugh or cry?
In the past our government pretended to hunt and chase black market operators. Today, it is a new normal. In front of the Nigerian Army Barracks in Ojo, in Lagos is the headquarters of petrol black market operators. Talk about the official seal!
So much for the oil mafia and their underground activities.
Enter the financial sector. If you need to travel or pay school or medical fees abroad and you desire foreign currency, of course, the black market is your first and only realistic option.
Well, you may argue that this scenario has been with us forever, but have you noticed that unlike in the past where these Abokis operated in obscure corners in the city centres, they are now in every market where fish and tomatoes are sold today? It’s our new normal, it’s come to stay.
In societies where laws are what they are, nobody would dare to exchange foreign currency on the streets illegally, but in my country Abokis are struggling with pepper sellers for kiosks spaces.
Some schools and hotels in Nigeria are insisting that payment be made in foreign currencies.
One of the allegations against the former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, we are told, was his currency redesign programme which saw Nigerians go through and suffer in an unprecedented way like never before, chasing cash from bank to bank and using money to buy money. It was an experience that was better imagined. Husbands and their wives would take off from their homes to go searching for naira notes to purchase, like hunters going in search of bush meats in the forests.
Well, you would think that with that experience, the new refrain would be never again, is it not? Sorry! Today people still go from banks to banks in search of cash to undertake little expenditures here and there.
The banks will tell you they don’t have cash and so cannot give more than N10,000 but right opposite the bank is a POS operator under an umbrella who can give you as much as you desire in cash for a fee.
Since these POS operators under canopies and umbrellas do not run supermarkets nor do they have another business, where are they getting their cash from? What exactly is the purpose of the ATM when I cannot access cash from it at any time, isn’t that the essence of the 24/7 access these banks claim in their commercials?
As a man with over 30 years experience operating a bank account, I cannot claim to have had new naira notes paid to me from the counters of these banks. Yet, illegal currency dealers are at every social gathering offering new notes for sale. Do they operate their own money minting companies? Where are they getting supplies from?
Ironically, the two major reasons responsible for the current plight of Nigerians are linked with the petroleum and financial sectors. When President Tinubu during his inauguration said oil subsidy is gone, he meant well, because many of us could no longer live with the monumental fraud that is masked around the oil subsidy regime. But did he think it through and did he not anticipate the immediate backlash that would arise from that pronouncement?
When he opted to float the currency, which again was supported by many if only to end the fraud with round-tripping in the sector, did he also consider the consequences given that these two major policy shifts were coming in quick succession?
Now that those two decisions have been taken, how about seeking immediate remedial actions to mitigate their effects on the people. Providing 30 hybrid Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses and promising to provide more is only a drop in the ocean.
Because our economy is road-driven, palliative measures would not address the problem. Will NNPCL deliver the local refineries and how soon can that be done? How prepared are the NNPCL, NMDPRA and the ministry, to ensure that as a matter of urgency, Dangote is given all the support it needs to be in the market?
Until our markets have a significant amount of locally refined petrol the volatility of the cost of the products would be beyond our control since the cost is determined by the exchange rate of the naira against the dollar.
There shall be no more excuses by NNPCL and NMDPRA. It is either a regular supply of petrol in the market or their bosses are sacked. Kyari must be given a mandate to deliver these local refineries or he is shown the way out.
We are tired of constantly shifting the due date. It is only when sanity and transparency are brought to the petroleum sector that the economy of this nation can begin to breathe. Energy is everything for a growing economy, we are either getting it right or we continue to remain the laughing stock of other serious nations of the world.
•Written by Charles Okoh
