After failing twice to deliver on its promises of making fuel available at all filling stations across the length and breadth of the country, there is a semblance of availability of petrol in some parts of the country, especially the major cities. What we see is a semblance of normalcy, but to say that the problem is not yet solved and that we may still experience scarcity is a truism.
And in the past few weeks, there have been indications that the Federal Government is warming up to embrace full deregulation of the down stream sector; this entails removal of subsidy on the pump price of petroleum products.
At the moment, government subsidises petrol based on the template prepared by the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).
It is still the prerogative of state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to import fuel, because major marketers who are also importers and who have already been given approvals to import want more assurances that their investment would not go down the drain in the eventuality of a possible policy summersault on the part of the government. Only very few marketers are importing.
It is also a ridiculous way of meeting supply (even though out borne out of exigencies) for the NNPC to completely rely on private sector-owned depots to feed the filing stations through trucks which come into Lagos from virtually all parts of the country.
Nigerians are beginning to lose fate in the ability of the present government to fix the problems of the oil and gas sector; a problem which culminated in the endorsement of deregulation by the government.
At the beginning of the crisis, President Umar Yar’ Adua and his ministers and advisers had attempted to justify deregulation by submitting that there is need to reduce the influence of the oil importation, marketing and distribution cartels by removing subsidy.
But, the prevailing problems in the down stream sector of the oil and gas industry can not be solved simply by embracing deregulation hook, line and sinker.
It is very uncharitable and a clear demonstration of total disconnect from the people to romance a policy which has the tendency to further impoverish the people.
It is almost certain that deregulation is inevitable and this is because government has programmed it to be so and has made it appear as if there is no alternative.
Before deregulation, Nigerians will appreciate it if the federal government can repair the refineries. Or else, the poor will continue to be at the mercy of the shylocks called importers whose obsessive love for profits are usually explained away by some people as just pandering to the natural forces of demand and supply.
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