By Augustine Akhilomen
While many Nigerians are still struggling to cope with an epileptic power supply that has been a bane in the development of the country for more than four decades, the nation was yet again plunged into an unnecessary crisis caused by scarcity of fuel, leaving in its wake long queues on major roads across the country.
Filling stations were shut down despite having the product to sell. While the few ones that had the product witnessed a barrage of long queues of vehicles and kegs, thereby paving the way for the black market to thrive at will.
According to Statista, Nigeria was the leading oil producer in Africa as of 2022. Oil production amounted to roughly 69 million metric tons in the country. Libya, Algeria, and Angola followed, each with an output above 50 million metric tons. In the same year, the overall production of oil in Africa, including crude oil, shale oil, oil sands, and NGLs, reached 332.3 million metric tons, 3.76 percent less than in 2021
It is also on record that Nigeria is the fifth-largest oil-producing nation in the world but still struggles with the issue of fuel scarcity. However, many observers had thought that with the removal of fuel subsidies by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May 29, 2023, it would put an end to this perennial issue of fuel crisis scarcity, but it appears the story remains the same.
Even so, many had wondered why the nation still grappled with this never-ending crisis despite having refineries that never seemed to have been utilized by the present and past administrations. The country has four refineries and sadly, none of them appear to be working. What we have been told over the years is that millions of dollars have been spent by successive administrations to put them in order. “The refineries have not worked and nobody is jailed or punished for not doing their job”, says Tunde Ajayi, a Lagos based lawyer.
Observers however are of the view that while the Dangote Refinery offers a glimmer of hope, it is a private endeavor that should not absolve the government of its responsibility to restore Nigeria’s public refineries to full working condition.
The projections for the Kaduna refinery to resume operations, according to the federal government, is by late 2024 and the Port Harcourt refinery that was supposed to restart operation in April 2024 is yet to be reopened.
The general belief however is that if the country can put the existing refineries in order and they are allowed to function at optimum capacity, it will ease the pressure of importing fuel into the country.
“I just continue to wonder why our four refineries have failed to work, while countries with one or two refineries are doing well in distributing their petroleum products. I think it all bothers on corruption by government officials who are benefitting from the regime of importing petroleum products. So, until the Tinubu government comes out decisively against those sabotaging the country, we would remain in this hole, Ajayi said.
Again, while past presidents have clung to the position of Minister of Petroleum, it has not in any way solved the problem or crisis in the petroleum sector, rather, we have seen an upsurge in oil theft and utter mismanagement in the sector.
Since the inception of the current democratic dispensation, the president has assigned the Petroleum portfolio to his office. What this means is that the president cannot be held accountable when there is the need for it, either by the people or by the National Assembly. This is not good for responsible governance and accountability.
Hence, there are many questions on the lips of Nigerians, chief among them is if there will ever be an end to the incessant fuel crisis?
Reacting to this development, the Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights, Frank Tietie, said it is disgraceful for Nigeria to be facing the Premium Motor Spirit crisis all the time.
His words: “I am surprised, shocked, and highly embarrassed that this is happening after all the much talked-about subsidy removal to ensure efficiency in the supply of petroleum products.
“It is highly disgraceful that this is happening after a certain explanation by the NNPCL that the queues and shortage of PMS were a result of logistics problems. What a nebulous way to take Nigerians for granted. Whether it is logistics associated with a lack of trucking facilities or anything that has to do with transportation,” he said.
“We all know that it is for certain mysterious reasons that refineries have refused to work, whereas we understand that it benefits a certain establishment class in this country that the refineries won’t and will never work, no matter the commitment of any of the administrations, whether it was Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammad Buhari, or the current administration of Bola Tinubu.
“The refineries won’t work. Everybody is expecting the Dangote refinery to kick off so we can have a measure of the availability of PMS. We run a country in such a manner that we take the people for granted, and we will now see people run the government and states without any sense of responsibility or shame.
“How can we, as a major oil-producing country in the world, have this kind of situation? And then we have an NNPCL that wants to pride itself on saying that it is competing with a certain Saudi ARAMCO whereas it cannot provide any form of energy security for its country.”
In the same vein, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, wondered why fuel supply has deteriorated under the nose of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL.
“President Bola Tinubu oversees the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, tasked with directing petroleum resources and activities in Nigeria. At the helm of the NNPCL stands Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), whose tenure has been marked by the worst fuel crisis in recent memory. Nigerian students have never witnessed such prolonged shortages and disruptions to fuel supply, and we refuse to accept this as the new normal.”
Meanwhile, Ifeanyi Ubah, chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), has urged the federal government to be intentional about the modular refineries as a strategy to end Nigeria’s fuel scarcity.
“I am proposing that the government should come up with a very laudable position to stimulate the development of modular refineries that can refine crude oil within the riverine areas and use competent experts to operate them.
“The government needs to take a big leap in investing in these modular refineries. They will grow bigger. We do not need to place the sector on a single operator. Nobody does it. Everybody wants to maximize profit. The only thing that will crash prices is competition.
“We can use between $300 million and $500 million to establish one refinery, and the owners can recoup their monies within five to 10 years. We can use money from local content and other sources to energize modular refineries. This will make Nigeria self-reliant in refining its petroleum products. So, let us take a step,” Mr. Ubah said.
Nigeria’s vast oil wealth should be a blessing, not a curse that condemns its citizens to perpetual hardship and underdevelopment.
The Tinubu administration inherits this challenge and must approach it with unwavering commitment, innovative solutions, and the political will to implement comprehensive reforms. Therefore, the portfolio should be assigned to a competent technocrat who will be given the responsibility of taking hard decisions that will take us out of this mess. Enough of politicizing this important sector!