In spite of Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu’s promise that petrol will be available in 48 hours on December 14 and the assurances of the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), Dr Maikanti Kachallah Baru that there is enough product for the country, Nigerians had spent Christmas under a debilitating fuel scarcity. From all indications, most Nigerians will celebrate the New Year at filling stations as IBRAHEEM MUSA sheds light on the murky issues of petrol shortage in the country.
In a way, a recent post on social media, depicting President Muhammadu Buhari, as Minister of Petroleum Resources 30 years ago, has put the present crippling fuel crisis in historical perspective. In 1977, the oil minister had promised, in the June edition of Daily Times, that ‘’Fuel crisis may be over next year’’.
Right now, Buhari is both president and petroleum minister but fuel scarcity has virtually grounded the nation for close to a month. In retrospect, Buhari’s bromide suggests that the crisis is not new as the problem has defied solution and the fuel scarcity transcends military and civilian administrations. Before now, promises have been made and broken and new ones are being made by government officials.
The scarcity, as at last Thursday, was increasing by the day as long queues of vehicles stretched from filling stations to nowhere. In Abuja, the nation’s capital, few filling stations were dispensing petrol and the lucky ones, without pretences, were selling above the official price of N145 per litre.
Openly, youngsters operated ‘’black markets’’ on the highways, selling the product at any price they deemed fit while security officials looked the other way. Severally, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), at every opportunity, has claimed that the scarcity is artificial, brought about by panic buying and hoarders.
In addition, the nation’s oil company, without qualification, has been saying that it has enough petrol to satisfy the nation’s demands.
Promises, promises, promises
On December 7, 2017, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had briefed State House correspondents about the fuel situation in the country.
According to him, his Petroleum Resources colleague, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, didn’t attend the FEC meeting as he has been ordered to address the shortage of gasoline in the country. Kachichikwu, Lai Mohammed further said, had assured that there was enough fuel to last until January 2018.
In addition, the minister allayed fears of increase in the pump price of fuel.
Similarly, from far away London, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Kachallah Baru, gave similar assurances. “For the umpteenth time,’’ according to him, ‘’I wish to call on all Nigerians to stop panic buying. We have said times without number that NNPC has sufficient products to cater for the needs of all consumers.” Significantly, Baru had cut short his official trip and ordered more truckloads of petroleum products to various parts of the country. However, in spite of Baru’s assurance, fuel scarcity still persisted.
A week later, Kachikwu had assured Nigerians that the scarcity will end in 48 hours, after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting of on December 14. In two days, according to him, fuel supply will be restored nationwide as there was enough products at strategic reserves. However, instead of abating, the fuel shortage became worse and since then, Kachikwu and Baru have been speaking from both sides of their mouths, blaming labour unions, oil marketers, saboteurs and just about everyone but themselves.
PENGASSAN throws spanner in the works
Significantly, as NNPC was fixing the supply chain, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) threatened to go on strike, rolling back the gains of Kachikwu’s efforts. Consequently, the threat followed a stalled peace meeting over labour related issues, where the union and Neconde Energy Limited, an emergent energy giant , had traded allegations. In particular, PENGASSAN accused the company of anti-worker practices and failing to remit deducted taxes to government.
The company, according to PENGASSAN, had wrongly dismissed some staff. The union, after due notification, had threatened strike action if the workers were not recalled within 72 hours. Specifically, Kachikwu had brokered a peace meeting but the trouble shooting effort came to naught. However, on December 16, the planned nationwide strike was shelved but the oil scarcity had worsened.
Earlier, the Director General of State Security Service, Malam Lawal Musa Daura, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige and Kachikwu sealed a deal with the union and PENGASSAN sheathed its sword. Addressing newsmen afterwards, PENGASSAN’s National President, Comrade Francis Olabode Johnson said that the “management of Neconde was mandated to invite the sacked branch chairman for a meeting with a view to ameliorating the action taken against him and with a total review of the termination of the appointment and conciliatory conditions attached.’’
In addition, the management was mandated to create room for unionism and report the outcome to Ngige within three months. Significantly, this intervention saved an industrial crisis but the threat in itself worsened the fuel crisis, sparked off panic buying , in spite of NNPC’s improved distribution.
Trading blames
As the scarcity persists, NNPC passed the buck to oil marketers, blaming them of spreading rumour, hoarding and diverting the product. The marketers, according to Baru, have been sabotaging the corporation’s supply efforts in a bid to create scarcity. In addition, they flew the kite of a planned price increase but NNPC, Baru pointed out, doubled its supplies nationwide. Usually, the nation’s daily consumption was 700 trucks and that translates to about 27-30 million litres per day. However, the corporation had doubled its daily supply to 80 million litres since the current hiccup in the supply chain was noticed, the GMD had claimed in a statement. Baru, like cracked vinyl record, also assured Nigerians that the NNPC had enough products that would last up to 30 days. In addition, like the his minister, he promised that the fuel situation would fizzle out this week.
However, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) has exonerated oil marketers from the current fuel crisis across the country, arguing that there is no fuel in the depots and tanks of its members nationwide. DAPPMA, in a statement signed by its executive secretary, Mr. Olufemi Adewole, debunked NNPC’s claim that oil marketers are hoarding petrol and causing artificial scarcity. According to DAPPMA, “while we cannot confirm or dispute NNPC’S claims of having sufficient product stock, we can confirm that the products are not in our tanks and as such cannot be distributed. If the products are offshore, then surely, it cannot be considered to be available to Nigerians.” In addition, Adewole challenged the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) to provide his members with petrol, promising that they are ready to undertake 24 hours loading and truck-out. Right now, DAPPMA members had paid for large orders of fuel from the NNPC, which are yet to be supplied to them, Adewole had clarified. According to him, “our members pay PPMC/NNPC in advance for petroleum products, and fully paid up PMS orders that have neither been programmed nor loaded is in excess of 500,000 metric tonnes, about 800 million litres, as at today, and enough to meet the nation’s needs for 19 days at a daily estimated consumption of 35 million litres.’’
DAPPMA accuses NNPC
Adewole blamed the unending fuel crisis on the challenges in the Direct Sales Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme, rising price of the commodity in the international market and the high interest rates charged by banks in the country. He argued that NNPC operates a fixed price regime of N145 per litre for petrol but has no control on the international price of crude oil.
However, due to price challenges on the DSDP platform, Adewole revealed that some participants in the scheme failed to meet their supply quota of refined petroleum products, to NNPC. Categorically, the DAPPMA chief said t hat this failure, contrary to Baru’s allegations, is the main reason for this scarcity.”
In addition, NNPC and DAPPMA are both making contrary claims to their indebtedness to each other, thereby compounding the murky situation. Last Wednesday, NNPC claimed that DAPPMA members are owing it over N26.7 billion as at December 21, 2017 and the corporation, in spite of the debt, has been supplying the marketers with products. DAPPMA, on the contrary, had alleged that its members have paid for petrol for over one month. According to the marketers, the value of their payment is in excess of N90 billion, in spite of the fact that PPMC and NNPC had no cargo to allocate to them.
Neither NNPC nor PPMC, Adewole pointed out, transacts business with DAPPMA on credit and for that reason, the question of indebtedness does not arise hence. According to him, NNPC has been the sole importer of refined products since October. Marketers, on the other hand, ‘’have continued to sacrifice to keep the country wet with fuel despite over N600 billion debt owed our members and over N800 billion owed marketers as a whole by the federal government’’, Adewole claimed.
ASUU, PDP blame govt
Significantly, reactions to the ongoing fuel crisis have been negative. In particular, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that it is shameful that Nigeria under the President Muhammadu Buhari cannot refine enough fuel for domestic consumption despite being the minister of Petroleum. Comrade Deji Omole, the University of Ibadan chairman, said that it is obvious that neither APC nor PDP has the solution to the problems facing ordinary Nigerians.
Similarly, PDP has accused the federal government of providing cover for huge sleazes directly involving APC interests. Consequently, government officials should stop dishing out falsehood to suffering Nigerians.In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan on Thursday, the party said that it is completely reprehensible that the ruling party has continued to stick to lies, particularly on the real reasons behind the biting fuel scarcity.
According to PDP, the APC-led government should tell Nigerians the truth regarding its handling of fuel related funds, particularly the circumstances surrounding the exposed diversion of fuel funds in sleazy oil subsidy payouts, rather than dissipating its tenuous energy on name calling. In addition, the opposition party said the present administration ‘’ is not only grossly incompetent and corrupt, but also a champion in the use of lies and manipulations against innocent and unsuspecting citizens.’’ The government, in its almost three years, ‘’has not added one litre to the five million litres which the PDP administration was producing.
Instead of improvements, the APC has wrecked the system and now pushing the nation to depend solely on importation, while engaging in heavy sleazes in hidden subsidy regimes,’’ the statement added. However, , in its bid to cover for its ineptitude, the government announced that it is the NNPC and not Nigeria that is paying for the so-called fuel subsidy, PDP pointed out.
Fuel scarcity: Any end in sight?
In spite of its denial, federal government may be forced to increase the price of petroleum because of its landing cost. Last Tuesday, Baru said that it has hit N171 but the official pump price remains N145 per litre. ‘’As it is, the approved price is unsustainable. More so, there were no provisions for fuel subsidy in both 2017 and 2018 budgets’’, a source told Blueprint Weekend yesterday.
According to him, the appreciation in the price of crude oil to about $65 per barrel in the international market has also increased the cost of refined petrol. ‘’That explains why only NNPC is importing fuel. Even when the price of crude was $45/barrel, NNPC was importing the petrol at a loss. Already both major and independent marketers have shunned importation of petrol,’’ he explained to our correspondent. Significantly, NNPC does not have the capacity to satisfy the daily of about 54 million litres per barrel.
Last Thursday, the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), in a press statement, has summoned Kachikwu, and Baru, over the ongoing fuel crisis. According to Senator Kabiru Marafa, the duo and other stakeholders will hold a crucial meeting on January 4, 2018. The meeting which will be aired live on the Nigerian Television Authority( NTA), will try to unravel the debilitating fuel crisis which has been on for three weeks, in spite of sundry assurances.
Hopefully, the stakeholders may tell Nigerians the truth of whether or not an increase in the pump price of petroleum is in the offing. From the look of things, most motorists may spend the New Year looking for petroleum, just as they celebrated the Christmas without fuel.
