By David-Chyddy Eleke
Early this January, I dramatized the fuel scarcity that we have faced for a while now. I called a friend who is an ardent supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari. I asked him if he has bought fuel and where he did? He told me he was too busy to queue up in a petrol station that was selling for N280, and quickly bought in another station for N320.
He honestly tried to direct me where to buy fuel at a cheap price, but truth was that I already bought. I just wanted to tease him. And after he was done directing me which station I can get the product, and at a cheaper price, I told him – “Bros, no vex. I just say make I know whether una wey dey support Buhari get where dem dey buy fuel cheap.” The guy was so annoyed, but I felt fulfilled and laughed at him with a lot of self-fulfilment.
As I type, the official price of fuel is still N170, and it is believed that the price is kept that low, through subsidies. Federal government spends nothing short of N3trillion annually to subsidize fuel. This is to ensure that the price per litre remains low enough for the poor to access it, or so it doesn’t trigger a rise in the price of food item, transport fare and other services.
But do you know, today, there is a huge disparity about the price per litre in various Zones, states, and towns in Nigeria. Fuel today sells for between N185, and N450. Black market operators sell as high as N800 per litre.
In times past, petrol stations may sell fuel for a few naira above pump price, but they do so discreetly, to avoid being penalized by PPPRA (Petroleum Products Price Regulatory Agency). But today, petrol stations boldly fix the price of petrol at N450 per liter on their metres, and it scrolls on their billboard. This is without a care in the world. What do you expect? Buhari is inept, agencies under him can’t function. They just watch, while the country slides downwards.
Just today (Monday, January 30), I joined a long queue at a petrol station in the hope that the station may be selling at maybe N280 (if you find a station selling at that price, the queue is usually crazy). My disappointment was that after wasting precious time in the queue, I found out they were selling at N340. I almost left in annoyance, but decided to buy. I got home tonight and asked my son to get fuel for the gen, and it was N450 per litre. What a country! A product that has a regulated price is sold at huge disparities.
We may need to ask Nigeria’s minister of petroleum, President Muhammadu Buhari what happens to the humongous amount his government budgets to subsidize petrol. We do not need lots of answers because it’s simple. The money for subsidy get stolen every year. Not by poor folks, but by officials who approved the budget for that money. What does the Minister of Petroleum do, upon realizing that the money budgeted to beat down the price of petrol does not reflect on the actual price? He sits and mops.
No one gets punished, no one gets reprimanded for sabotaging government policies. He just sits back, and we continue to pretend that nothing is happening.
I’m not a lover of Buhari, but my confession is that as much as he has done his best, his best is too abysmal to appease Nigerians.
He has his good sides, which include his weak drive for infrastructure (he has recorded some progress there), and transparency in electoral processes, but he has killed Nigerian economy, and as we await it’s burial, we hope that a miracle worker will emerge by next month to resurrect it, before the Daura cattle herder buries her. Beyond these, my consolation is that of all those seeking to succeed Buhari, none can be as bad as him if they win. Not even the worst of them all can be as bad as the outgoing. May God keep Nigeria s until the herdsman exits.
