This week episodse Maxwell talks about the on going fuel scarcity in the country..
Read below..
FUEL SCARCITY IN NIGERIA
Fuel scarcity is no fun for Nigeria but laughable for the rest of the world, as Nigeria is known as the largest Africa's oil producers which produces vast amounts of oil but the country has few functioning refineries and it also produces more crude than any where else in Africa.
Fuel scarcity in Nigeria which has continued to bite harder as commuters are stranded while motorists and users of the premium motor spirit across the country have had to contend while long queues at the few stations that occasionally sell the product.
Residents are also experiencing blackouts because they cannot buy petrol to run generators providing electricity to their home due to the worsening public electricity supply across the country.
Amidst other economic challenges, many are beginning to question president Buhari's mantra of change as the country experiences another fuel scarcity.
Moreover, the Federal Government, has urged Nigerians to exercise patience over the fuel crisis currently witnessed across the country, while it assured the public that the fuel queues currently witnessed in petrol stations would disappear soon.
The new government of President Muhammadu Buhari has said it will get Nigeria's four refineries back up and running and will also ease the distribution challenge that has led to the resurgence of queues at filling stations across the country. Promising to do something concrete to address the situation as Minister of Petroleum to contain the situation.
But Nigerians are still expecting his activities to ensure a significant increase in fuel scarcity.
The reason we are suffering this lingering scarcity of fuel is because only NNPC is importing the product now. In reality, the NNPC system has collapsed, but the private sector players like the oil marketers are those assisting NNPC to bring in the product for domestic and industrial consumption. From the scarcity situation we are experiencing in the country now, it is quite clear that only NNPC cannot meet the demand for petrol consumption with a large population over 160million people.
I think the way forward is for us to do the right thing because our policies are not right. Those policies should be reviewed with a view enhancing efficiency in the downstream sector. We need the right and appropriate pricing system for the petroleum products.
Deregulation is equally important and government should look at that as well. Even if government cannot deregulate the sector immediately, let us have appropriate pricing system now and government should ensure that marketers are paid subsidy claims on time.
By Maxwell Onwordi