Business and social activities have been crippled by vicious scarcity of petroleum product in the South South part of the country. From Uyo, Akwa Ibom State to Bayelsa, Cross Rivers to Delta and Rivers States, the situation is the same.
The people are gnashing their teeth in confusion as the Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, commonly called petrol becomes an essential commodity. In Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State Capital, our correspondent gathered that commuters have to trek long kilometers to their destinations as prices of transportation fare has been hiked by both tricycle and taxi operators.
At the popular Ibom Plaza, sales were reportedly affected as buyers were few due to high price of transportation fare and scarcity of commercial taxis and tricycles also known as keke. Queues were endless as many driver spent hours and days fuel stations buying at exorbitant prices.
On why the product is scarce, an independent marketer along Oron Road, Uyo told our correspondent that it is as a result of inability of the tanker drivers to lift the product owing to deplorable state of Calabar-Uyo Road, which they described as death trap.
It was also learnt that many filling station in Uyo refused to open as a reaction to the shutting down of 35 filling stations in Uyo, Eket, Ikot Abasi and Nsit Ubium by Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) led by the State Operations Comptroller, Mr. Asuquo Antai, for selling above approved pump price. Report has it that marketers who bought the product at high price shut down their stations in the day for fear of being sealed up by DPR operatives and rather sell the product at higher cost in the night, between three hundred and twenty and three hundred and fifty naira.
Also reacting to the fuel scarcity, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Akwa Ibom State, Elder Kufre Ufot, said it was worrisome that Nigeria is still facing challenges on distribution of petroleum product six months after President Buhari resumed office, contrary to his earlier promise to bring down fuel price to N45.00 per litre. Elder Ufot further stressed that in as much as Buhari is the Minister of Petroleum, it is his responsibility to ensure that problem of fuel availability and price stability is solved.
According to him:”What we are experiencing today is quite different from what Buhari and All Progressives Congress promised Nigerians. They promised us that they will solve Nigeria’s problems with just a click of the mouse. They have failed. In other words, they are lairs. They promised to bring down fuel price to N45.00 but now, we are buying fuel at N250, N300 and even more”.
The politician and Estate Surveyor/Valuer maintained that the fuel scarcity and whatever happen in Nigeria now is the ‘Change’ Nigeria needed and voted for even as he called on President Buhari to take a drastic step in making sure that he arrests the situation before it leads to anarchy. Meanwhile, the strike embarked upon by Petroleum tankers Driver Association has been suspended with a promise to resume duty tomorrow.
In Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, which used to be a beehive of activities, is now less busy because of the hike in transportation which has hampered people’s movement coupled with the non availability of much funds in the city. This has made people to cut their coats according to their sizes. Ordinarily, Yenagao is one of the most bubbling city although it is a small town but life used to be very interesting until recently when economic down turn in the country became very unbearable in the state.
A peep to all the petrol stations from Mbiama Yenagao road to down Yenagoa indicated that most of the filling stations are not having fuel while those that have are selling between N130 and N150. At the Agudama axis of Yenagao, a filling station owner who sells for N130 per litre said they suffer so much before getting this fuel, adding that the product is given to them occasionally. In other words, they don’t even get the products when they need it.
He said before this time, they have been having problem with the distribution of premium motor spirit before the recent announcement that fuel should be sold for fifty six naira a litre.
The young man said it is not all about telling them to sell at a particular price, the distributors and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other people in charge, he said, should also make the product affordable and available for them. Earlier before the current fuel hike in the state and beyond, this private marketer has been complaining of exorbitant prices they as individual marketers buy the products and other form of taxes they are always forced to pay before they now fix their own price.
He said before they can sell at the prize approved by the Federal Government, they should be meant to get it at an affordable price before they can be mandated to sell at fifty six naira.
While they are selling although at an exorbitant prize filling stations around them were seen kept under lock and key even when information revealed that they are having the product. A thorough investigation revealed that they want to know the direction of the current fuel scarcity in the state and beyond before they sell their PMS. Along the whole of Mbiama Yenagoa road, you see few filling stations dispensing fuel while most of them have.
Getting to the NNPC mega station in Yenagoa, the queue there is best imagined than experienced. Although the patient ones get fuel at the end of the day, the impatient ones end up patronizing these other filling station that sell at a very exorbitant rate. The reason according to a tricycle rider popularly called Keke who simply gave his name as Mfon is because they can’t afford to wait at the mega filling station for so many hours some times for a day before getting fuel.
He said the Keke doesn’t consume enough fuel so the essence of waiting endlessly does not arise. Mfon said the time he will waste waiting to get fuel at the mega filling station, he will go and buy it at N150 and enter road arguing that the passengers will pay him back the money.
But incidentally, it bounces back on the commuters, hence where one ordinarily supposed to pay like N50, now goes for around N80 to N100. The situation has also, made movement in and around Yenagoa difficult. Some people will prefer to stay in their houses instead of wasting the little cash they said they have on transportation alone. Of course the situation has also affected food items in the market although in a small quantity but the truth still remains that a container of garri that was sold at N250 now goes for N270.
While food items like rice, yam, beans and other condiments for soup and stew have also added small prizes on top of the normal prizes. A trader who deals on these food items, Madam Theresa, said they have to add money to the normal prizes of these products because that was how they bought prizes quite different from what they used to buy before.
Already the roads are gradually becoming lonely because of the hike in transport fare coupled with lack of money which is becoming a normal phenomenon and slogan in the state from the political elites to the people on the street in the state.
A tax driver who conveyed this correspondent from Mbiama to Yenagoa could not hide his feelings as he was visibly seen lamenting about the situation. Mr Denis Igwe said sometimes he has to go as far as Ahoda in Rivers State to look for fuel before he can work; the reason why he said he collects three hundred from road users who were paying about two hundred naira before now.
In and around Yenagoa however, life goes on but it is sluggish as people now calculate before making move. Although nobody knows when the situation will normalize or when the fuel will be sold at the Federal Government approved price, people still are hoping that the situation will be brought under control by all means.
The electricity in the state is not all that stable so people especially business people that use light depend on generators to run their businesses but recently it is becoming a bit difficult for them because they cannot get fuel at an affordable prize to buy.
While some are lamenting of the price, othersare asking to see the fuel not minding the prize of the commodity. Mama Divine who sells minerals at Amarata Yenagao said she can no longer meet up with her demands because she can’t sell her sachet water and her mineral. She said she can’t assess the fuel.
Meanwhile there is no constant light in her area. As at the time of filling in this report, the chairman of petroleum tax force, Abrakasa Benjamin, could not be reached to know how best to arrest the situation. But one is expectant that the situation will be brought under control fast.
