By Tahir
Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi.
It's been
years now since Nigerians were last confronted with the ugly, time consuming,
distorted and burdensome lifestyle of fuel queues, adulterated fuel, and sky
rocketing of fuel prices. Somehow this ugly monster whom we thought had been
buried by PMB, reared its ugly face, and extended its proboscis into our lives,
to torment us, and devour us to its filling, unwinding the progresses made --
making us suffer, making the government look like a lame duck. It resurrected
and did the 'thriller' graveyard dance all over our lives one more time. I
passed by a certain expressway which happened to house an NNPC fuel station,
and it took me almost the whole day because the fuel queues had taken over the
road and we had to follow the long queues, to be able to progress to wherever
we were headed to. This was in the nation's capital. From December to date, we
have had intermittent issues of fuel scarcity, from panic buying, to marketers
hoarding, to rumors of subsidy removal. It has largely been about marketers hoping
to make a kill on the litres of petrol they have, should the government remove
subsidy over night. They stood to make 250 Naira and more, per litre.
Nevertheless, fuel was hoarded and sold in the black market and the
government's Maradonic move jilted them, and left them with their tails between
their hind legs. We all survived the affront and schemes of the marketers and
lived to queue another day. And queue we did as we were hit by yet another
glitch of more terrifying and tormentful fuel queues. What went wrong this
time?
From rumors of sulphur in the adulterated
fuel, to street talk of excess methanol in the supplied fuel of up to 100
million litres; the street press releases had come way before the NNPC press
statements. By then, so many commuters had struggled with their vehicles, as
the retailed fuel was already damaging vehicles across the country. Had the
warning come a little earlier, it would have saved the losses incurred in the
purchase of the bad fuel, atop the cost of its importation, and then the cost
of the damages to vehicles. Only God knows how many vehicles and how much of
that fuel was dispensed, not to mention the extent of the damage to the
affected automobiles. The inconvenient, 'doomish', and troubling situation of the
fuel queues was a sad reminder of the hell hole we had crawled out from years
back. It frustrated every activity, be it official, social or otherwise. The
lamentations were loud and resounding.
How did very large volumes of fuel find its way into our
cars undetected, all the way from Belgium? There is a new NNPC LTD right? There
are functional and independent Midstream and Downstream regulatory agencies
right? So what happened? Or are we being punished for resisting the removal of
subsidy? Did the officials connive with marketers or were they just
incompetent? Was it a calculated act of sabotage to undermine the PMB admin?
Aren't there supposed to be tests? Or did the flurry and hurry of importation
to meet an unprecedented rise in demand give room to this huge blunder? Did
someone yahoo on this to become an overnight billionaire? From the names of
marketers listed by NNPC, major marketers and importers of the products were
involved, so most naive excuses shouldn't be entertained at this time from
them. We expect professionalism from NNPC LTD. It shouldnt be like the good old
days anymore. Adulterated fuel in this country is not alien, after the
successful and hideous cornering of the Nigerian populace into a life of fuel
imports; despite being a rich oil country. These recent events are a rude
awakening that we are indeed a 'poor oil' country afterall.
Buildings collapse every now and then from obvious
flaws in design, quality, permits and other short-changing tricks which often
times lead to loss of lives. There are times that this happens unrestrained
over a short period of time. Sometimes in the same state. Then comes the
Inquiries, then the committees, then the 'have yous' and what-not. At the end
of the day, nobody gets punished. No one gets billed or prosecuted and fined/
jailed. This has sustained the culture of impunity all over. This is not
restricted to the construction industry or the oil industry. This has become a
huge national problem and is becoming the one thing that is our most or gravest
undoing. Nobody gets punished for crime. Criminals go scot-free. EFCC/ ICPC
breathing down their necks, then it graduates into judicial hullabaloo, and
before you know it, it's the end of the story.
Therefore, PMB as the Minister of Petroleum needs to personally
handle this issue and take it to a logical conclusion. Logical in the move of
making sure they are punished. Officials and marketers alike. Officials fired,
marketers fined to their bones, will set a good precedent atleast in a new oil
sector of the much celebrated PIB law. Threats and statements won't just cut
it. Hard knocks however will cut through just fine like a razor. If it is not
done, then the old NNPC is no different from the new NNPC, and the new one is
perhaps even worse. Fraud leap-frogged us from functional refineries, to a
regime of fuel importation. This same fraud will devour the subsidy even when
removed if care is not taken. That is why Nigerians believe that instead of a
few greedy ones chopping off the 3 to 4 trillion Naira alone, it is better 200
million of us chop it off and feel 'belly-full' together as one.
Tahir is
Talban Bauchi.