It’s fast becoming an impossibility to have stable supply of petroleum products in Nigeria. The story is the same all over the country. There as many probes, as many committee and as many reports as there are many importers and actors in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
Government has failed severally in its promise to make fuel available at all filling stations, irrespective of geo-political location.
At point, it canvassed full deregulation of the downstream sector and this entails removal of subsidy on petroleum products.
It’s fast becoming an impossibility to have stable supply of petroleum products in Nigeria. The story is the same all over the country. There as many probes, as many committee and as many reports as there are many importers and actors in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
Government has failed severally in its promise to make fuel available at all filling stations, irrespective of geo-political location.
At point, it canvassed full deregulation of the downstream sector and this entails removal of subsidy on petroleum products.
For the obvious reason of epileptic power supply which will entail spending more money by families, businesses and homes to fuel vehicles, generators and providing alternative power supply, Nigerians, earlier in the year fought for one week to oppose removal of subsidy on petrol. Neither government nor the people won, because, the pump price was not returned to its pre-January 1, 2012 figure of N65/litre
Even though, government did not have its way, its got N32 subsidy removed and for this, we have had debates, talks and probes, and now scarcity all over the country.
At a point in this country and in response to the perennial problem of scarcity, government set up a presidential committee which was headed by Bauchi state governor, Malam Isa Yuguda to come up with a workable solution to the problem. It is on record that it is the committee that recommended full deregulation.
It will be recalled that the PPPRA at that time said that it costs N85 to import a litre of petrol while the official pump price is N65. But the Yuguda committee says that the template price is unrealistic. It has therefore proposed that the price should be N77 per litre of petrol.
If deregulation had come on stream at that time, it would have cost a lot more than N77 to buy a litre of petrol.
Now we have gone beyond N77 and all the arguments about PPPRA templates, at the moment, everyone is looking for solution to the problem that has now turned Nigeria to a laughing stock among committee of oil producing nations. It is the only nation in OPEC where its crude oil is exploited, shipped outside and imported at an uncontrollable price. It is also the country that has the highest pump price of petrol among OPEC member states; also the country with the lowest per capita income, highest cost of living, highest infant mortality rate and lowest life expectancy rate.
The above does not imply in any way, that without crude oil, Nigerians would have been living a better life.
The fact is that it is obvious that this government does not have the solution to the problems that are bedeviling the supply and demand of petroleum products in Nigeria.
It is toying with the idea of deregulation, it is toying with the idea of when to finish talks and begin the work on Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
The solution to the multiple problems that are facing the Nigerian oil sector is not the several committees and task forces that are being created by the government, to say the least, it is diversionary, buck-passing and an indication that government is at a loss as to how to go about it.
It only takes deep knowledge of the contending issues, honesty and sincerity of purpose on the part of the executive and the legislature for the PIB to see the light of the day.
As for the persistent fuel scarcity, the solution still lies on the hands of the government to take charge of happenings in the downstream sector. There have been accusations and counter-accusations among the various players in the sector, but all these will stop once the PIB is passed into law.
The President needs to be more determined to see the PIB through; he needs to be firmer in taking decisions about the oil industry, he needs to clean the sector once and for the sake of the future of this nation.
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