The prolonged shortage of gasoline is outrageous

THE current setback in the supply of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) across the country is outrageous. As Africa's largest crude oil producer, several months of fuel shortages, particularly during the Christmas and New Year festivities, reflect Nigeria's dysfunctional public administration and economy.

But that's nothing new, as gasoline shortages have been recurrent for more than three decades. The scarcity resurfaced about four months ago and defied all logic and solution. The government and its agencies are distraught, making disconnected statements and uncoordinated movements. Interestingly, the latest was the directive from the State Security Service to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria and other stakeholders to address the current fuel crisis. in 48 hours!

Others "run" by the service were the Nigerian Road Transport Owners Association, the Nigerian Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Union and the Tanker Drivers Union.

Secret police pledged to prosecute traders if queues did not disappear after 48 hours. Queues initially appeared to have heeded the strange directive, but the respite did not last as the shortage took on a more acute dimension and frustrated Nigerians are spending many precious hours, some overnight, in distribution stations.

The SSS explained that its intervention was aimed at preventing any safety implications or any negative dimension that could arise from the current shortage of gasoline, adding that it was proactive in limiting what could cause incentives in the country during the Christmas period. .

This is the wrong way to solve a serious national problem; an internal intelligence service cannot decree the abundance of a rare commodity. Additionally, these agencies work covertly, and if they knew of or suspected sabotage, their mandate was to work with the appropriate agencies, investigate, arrest, and prosecute those who broke the law. Issuing an ultimatum, he cannot enforce a trivialized economic challenge.

Marketers are selling the product at prices ranging from 175 naira to 300 naira per litre, in defiance of the regulated pricing regime, signifying an out of control situation. Some private depots in Port Harcourt, Lagos and other towns have increased the ex depot price to N235/litre from the approved N148.17/litre.

Defending his interference, SSS spokesman Peter Afunaya said: "Some people may want to ask what our business is in the matter of fuel? We dare say that the service has a mandate to detect and prevent crimes and misdemeanors that may endanger internal security of which this one is no exception. The tactic is crude; the SSS has gone beyond its mandate. It can ban saboteurs but it cannot issue ultimatums to economic operators. The agency is not the downstream oil regulator.

The script is further proof of the disarray in the regime of the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retired). A serious and coordinated government would have cobbled together an inter-agency effort, effectively coordinated, and with tasks assigned to each agency. In this case, the SSS would not have been the one issuing ultimatums to the private economic operators.

NNPC's assurance that it has approximately 1.9 billion liters of fuel in storage, which can last beyond the Christmas period, is not visible on the market. This is unsurprising, as NNPC's recently announced transformation from a state monopoly to a limited liability company has failed to rouse the giant from its cesspool of corruption, inefficiency and operations. opaque.

It has failed the country's four refineries but persists in sinking billions of dollars, some of it borrowed, into so-called unsuccessful turnaround maintenance. In recent years, NNPC has been the sole importer of refined petroleum products under agreements that have sparked controversy over costs and the precise volume imported and distributed. Its inefficiencies are costing the country dearly. Irrationally, the government allows him to be the sole determinant of the subsidy he claims to have incurred and is paying himself.

Many of its 21 fuel depots across the country are dilapidated. Instead, owners of private deposits laugh at the bank by charging exorbitant rates for storing products leaving for merchant outlets on its behalf. Reports say he also owes $90 million to indigenous shipowners, whose daughter ships load the product from mother ships moored on the high seas to...