Fuelling an un-merry Xmas!
Christmas now commonly referred to as Xmas, has developed into more than just a celebration for Christians. Even those who adhere to other religions or indeed don’t adhere to any at all, enjoy Xmas because it’s the longest annual holiday. It’s a time for festivities throughout the world, because it falls within the new year […]
Christmas now commonly referred to as Xmas, has developed into more than just a celebration for Christians. Even those who adhere to other religions or indeed don’t adhere to any at all, enjoy Xmas because it’s the longest annual holiday. It’s a time for festivities throughout the world, because it falls within the new year period. Xmas is celebrated on the same date every year and this should under normal circumstances, give enough time for any government to provide an “enabling environment” and ensure that everything goes well during the holiday. But the sad truth of Nigeria’s predicament is that it’s a nation in which few things are “normal”.
The annual national disgrace of fuel scarcity reared its head once again destroying any chance of a merry holiday period for the majority of Nigerians. The buck must stop somewhere, and it stops firmly at the door of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and the table of the President who continues to retain the office of Minister of Petroleum Resources. Despite all promises and assurances, the situation only got worse. FEC has long since abandoned its primary role of ensuring that the needs of the people are served. Instead they have transformed into a Contract Tenders Board. Rising from their weekly meetings they routinely announce the award of contracts as if that is some sort of earth-shaking achievement.
Tragically while Ministers and Special Advisers wallow in their self-congratulatory euphoria, the nation slides further into chaos and gloom. At the State level, egoistical and uncompassionate Governors appear on television to wish citizens a “happy festive period” even as arrears of salaries and pensions remained unpaid! Despairingly it’s not only politicians who conspire to frustrate Nigerians and make life unbearable during the holiday season. Leaders in all fields appear to be indifferent towards the suffering of fellow citizens. Xmas is supposed to be the season of goodwill towards all men, yet no concrete steps were taken to relieve, even briefly, the suffering of the ordinary citizen.
The Banking Sector played their usual role in making life unbearable during the holiday season. All the talk of a cashless society ignores the realities on ground. Nigerian banks have long since discarded their traditional role of lending money and making profit from the interest charged on these loans. Nowadays their “new generation” modus operandi is to simply deduct money from customer accounts in the guise of spurious charges. One of such charges is the Point of Sales (POS) charge. This extortionate fee has caused many traders to discard the machines and ask customers to make payment by telephone transfer. By so doing the approximately N50 cost of each transaction is borne by the buyer not the seller. Those Nigerians who can’t afford N50 every time they wish to make a purchase (which is of course is the majority) are trapped in the cycle of making cash payments.
There is absolutely no rocket science in predicting that during the Xmas holiday season there will be a need for more cash in circulation. But as usual, queues outside petrol stations were matched only by queues outside ATM machines which on the most part remained empty or non-functional. The ridiculous situation arose in which bank customers themselves resorted to forcibly rationing the amount of money anybody could withdraw in order to speed up the queues and spread the limited cash! Ironically in spite of being totally frustrated and inconvenienced in the process of not being able to collect their cash, bank customers will have a “card maintenance” charge deducted from their account at the end of December!
It would be silly for anyone to believe that those with beaming smiles who engage in raucous laughter at weekly FEC meetings experienced any scarcity of fuel or mint currency notes with which to celebrate their own merry Xmas. The Airline industry which places no little premium on customer service, also did their best to make Xmas unbearable for the travelling public. Routine delays and flight cancellations turned shabby airports into chaos centres.
On the roads, as has become routine, there was a proliferation of Nigeria Police Force check-points established for the sole purpose of extorting money from innocent Xmas travellers. It’s self-evident that no Inspector-General of Police has been able to instil discipline in the rank and file. Harassing motorists in a similar fashion to either beggars or armed robbers they act as though the general public is responsible for providing their Xmas bonuses! Further contributing to an unmerry Xmas the carnage on our roads continues unabated. Many Nigerians will lose their lives as a result of their Xmas journeys. The main reason for poor driving habits and the daily bloodbath is simply because the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) quite ridiculous driving licensing system belittles testing driver competency and places a premium on the collection of fees.
Paradoxically the one government agency that deserves commendation for their actions over the Xmas period is the very same FRSC. They at least anticipate Xmas and mobilize their men and women onto the expressways to minimise gridlock and keep the bottlenecked Xmas traffic flowing. The loudest unreserved condemnation for fuelling an un-merry Xmas should be heaped upon officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Most Nigerians are hard pressed understand exactly what goes on in its multitude of massive edifices littered throughout the nation. Rather than contribute positively to national development it is largely responsible for Nigeria’s economic woes. In spite of all the rebranding and re-organization, it continues to be a cesspool of fraud, inefficiency, corruption, nepotism and financial mismanagement. The primary purpose of government is to relieve the routine sufferings of citizens. This government shas so far failed to live up to this responsibility. If heads do not roll over this fiasco, then players in the opaque oil and gas sector will continue to fuel many more unmerry Xmases for years to come.