Lingering fuel queues

Every day, hundreds of thousands of man-hour is wasted as public and private sector workers and other players in the informal sector abandon workplaces to queue at few service stations that infrequently stock the commodity. This perennial scarcity of petrol in a country that is ranked among the world’s top oil exporters appeared to have […]

Every day, hundreds of thousands of man-hour is wasted as public and private sector workers and other players in the informal sector abandon workplaces to queue at few service stations that infrequently stock the commodity. This perennial scarcity of petrol in a country that is ranked among the world’s top oil exporters appeared to have defied solution, in spite of the retinue of contractors who collect multibillion dollar fees from the government to import the product, but deliver little in return.  Soon after the long fuel queues eased few days to the March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections, 2015, they resurfaced last week in parts of the country.  There has been no shortage of blame.
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), accusing major oil marketers and depot operators of being driven by profit motive, said they were also sabotaging free flow of fuel supply in the country. The union’s president, Mr Achese Igwe, alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was using private depots to store fuel in order to give their owners undue advantage to create artificial scarcity and cause price gorging.
Mr Joe Ajaero of the National Union of Electricity Employees expressed concern over the sudden re-emergence of long queues in major cities supposedly due to insufficient supply of petroleum products in the country.
The NNPC, at the beginning of the current fuel crisis, had dismissed accusations that it was responsible for the lengthening fuel queues in parts of the country, and put out the usual assurance that its fuel supply chain remained robust with enough products to ‘last till end of the year and beyond’. NNPC management in turn accused the national leadership of NUPENG for directing Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTDs) to stop their bridging operation to Suleja depot and to stop product supply to Abuja as a way of protesting a longstanding contractual issue with petroleum tanker owners. The Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) noted the scarcity was artificial because there was enough stock of the products to last even for the long haul.
If NUPENG, NNPC/ Pipeline Products and Marketing Company (PPMC) and PPPRA are all united in their opinion that the current problem is artificial, then why has it lingered this long?  With the presidential elections over, there appears to be hand-off approach on the part of the relevant government ministry and officials in addressing the fuel issue.
If marketers stand accused as being responsible for the crisis through hoarding of the commodity, it amounts to dereliction of responsibilities that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke and her counterpart in the Ministry of Finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, or their officials, have uncharacteristically kept aloof and are keeping mum on this vital issue.  Hoarding of commodities is a serious economic crime and no perpetrator found guilty of it should be spared from receiving appropriate sanctions. Government must not allow few greedy individuals to hold the nation to ransom.  
To forestall the tendency to hoard by marketers, the NNPC should activate its vast network of depots and put them into proper shape so as to use them for storage instead of giving the contracts to private depots, as it the case currently.  The Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC should take immediate remedial measures to end the current scarcity, apparently caused by oil marketers but with the connivance of government officials. It goes without saying that a more lasting solution would be the revival of all of Nigeria’s oil refineries and the building of new ones.