Why are fuel queues returning?

Perhaps the mother of all assurances came when Mr. President while campaigning at the last April elections asked Nigerians to vote for him for the simple reason that he was able to bring to an end fuel scarcity, and promised when he was voted he would do whatever to maintain the status quo ante. Is […]

Perhaps the mother of all assurances came when Mr. President while campaigning at the last April elections asked Nigerians to vote for him for the simple reason that he was able to bring to an end fuel scarcity, and promised when he was voted he would do whatever to maintain the status quo ante. Is it not ironic that the queues have resurfaced at a time some stakeholders said it has nothing to do with shortage in supply, contradicting the NNPC that had attributed the queues to panic buying?

People who actually have idea about how the system works did not believe Mr. President when he made his promises to end fuel queues. Now that Mr. President is desperate to remove the fuel subsidy, it doesn’t require a genius to know that this is likely a deliberate ploy to convince us on the importance of this subsidy. But it seems there is some sense in this subsidy removal because the government cannot continue to be paying this subsidy to the transporters and some cabal for long, and as we don’t have any alternative to them, they will continue to be hiking the rate and be holding the country to ransom at the slightest provocation.

Unless the government is going to revive our refineries, then we must continue with these crises. The black market operators will continue having a field day, unless something urgent and concrete is done to tackle this situation. Repair the pipelines or revive the railways. One has to look at what the government spends every month on this subsidy, which is too much. The president only felt it necessary to remove the subsidy, while not minding to educate the masses on its importance. If at all the masses of this country who are suffering matter to the government, then oil should be seen as a blessing to the masses and not a ‘curse’.

Ahmed Rasheed Makarfi wrote from C3, Tudunwada, Makarfi, Kaduna State