Fuel Scarcity: Lessons Unheeded

It is no longer news that fuel scarcity has resurfaced
across the nation rather menacingly, holding Nigerians by the jugular and jolting the citizenry from the reverie of years of enjoying steady fuel supply. And as if history was playing a cruel trick, the return of fuel scarcity is happening precisely three years after the last incident.
As usual, petroleum products marketers and black market operators, obsessed with profit maximisation at the slightest opportunity, have always looked forward to times like this to hoard products and to inflict pain on the masses of this country.
Already, the current fuel scarcity has grounded economic activities across the country as the cost of moving men and materials hit the roof. Commuters, most of whom are workers were stranded and had to trek long distances to their various places of work late. The net effect is the avoidable loss of manhours.
Despite the ultimatum given to the Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke to contain the fuel scarcity within five days, scarcity has persisted nationwide with the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) going for between N250 to N350 per litre at the black market.
Only few days ago, both the petroleum minister and the director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) advised the general public not to panic as there was no fuel scarcity. The duo, at different fora, said there are enough product in stock, but pointed accusing fingers to the marketers for allegedly causing the problem.
The Tide understands that the present scarcity may not be unconnected with the refusal of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulation Agency (PPPRA), to release an alleged N100 billion fuel subsidy claims owed the oil marketers for the importation of fuel for the second half of 2013.
The oil marketers, who threatened to withdraw importation until government paid their arrears, made good their threat, and returned the nation to the ugly experiences of the past. This left the NNPC as the only importer of fuel to meet national demand which is over 35 million litres of PMS per day.
Notwithstanding the blame game of the dramatis personae in the present fuel crisis, the nation seems not to have heeded or imbibed the lessons which the fuel scarcity had offered in the past. Not even the trouble of looking for the product at a much higher price was considered.
Indeed, the re-emergence of the saga, years after the protest against the planned removal of subsidy from petroleum products, has caused many people to question the wisdom behind the protest against the plan of the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy.
Fuel scarcity and the associated evils as experienced across the country in the past weeks were what the government aimed at stopping when it proposed to remove the subsidy. But civil society members, propped by some powerful politicians, shut down the plan.
The expectation was to privatise the sector and ensure uninterrupted fuel supply, create jobs, utilise the by-products and achieve fair competition that would have also reduced the price of petroleum products in the country in the long run.
Sadly, a noisy minority had their way and succeeded in the establishment of SURE-P programme that has failed to shield the generality of Nigeirans from the ills of fuel scarcity or eliminate corruption behind the subsidy regime.
While we condemn the return of fuel scarcity, The Tide thinks that it is self-inflicted as the lessons of the past were neither heeded nor the introduction of international best practice respected.
After the protest, the Federal Government issued more licences for private refineries and tried to privatise the four refineries, all with a view to averting fuel scarcity, but were resisted by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). This primitive interference in an age where the leading economies are all privatised can only be condemnable.
More Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation’s Subsidiary, PPPRA issued allocation late, the nation’s reserves could have served the country for 20 days when new supplies were expected to have arrived but marketers decided to suffer Nigerians.
The Tide thinks that it was high time the Federal Government went on to do the right thing to save the country from this embarrassment. This is moreso,  because if government gets it right with the petroleum industry, nearly everything else will fall in line.
Enough of this vicious circle. Nigeria should not continue to suffer because of the petty interest of a few people. If the United States had about 150 refineries by 1983 with 143 now functioning optimally, Nigeria certainly needs more than the present four. Nigeria should not continue to import finished petroleum products but must do everything possible to refine its abundant hydrocarbon resources in-country not only to create jobs but to also boost the nation’s economic growth. The country must create the environment for private refineries to work.