Resolving the Lingering Fuel Crisis
The fuel scarcity which started as a joke in December 2009 has now become a feature of the country’s socioeconomic landscape. Across the country, Nigerians queue up at filling stations for hours on end for unavilable fuel. The implications have been loss of man-hours and rising cost of living as transport fares and prices of foodstuffs trend upwards.
Unfortunately, Nigerians have not been told precisely what the causes of the fuel scarcity in the country are, as there have been so much disinformation and misinformation regarding the crisis by government agencies. What we are sure of, however, is that the fuel scarcity is not as a result of the activities of militants in the Niger Delta region blowing up oil pipelines or damaging any of the oil installations in the region.
But the worst part of it now is that the official quarters – the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Department of Petroleum Resources(DPR)  are no longer saying anything nor are they seen to be doing anything to bring this awful  scarcity situation to an end.
And now, filling stations across the country sell fuel at indiscriminate prices.
The history of fuel scarcity in the country is astoundingly strange. There is hardly a year that runs from the beginning to the end without fuel scarcity coming somewhere in between, with the attendant shock waves and sufferings for Nigerians. This is strange because Nigeria is an oil-producing country, pumping and selling more than two million barrels of crude oil per day in the international oil market. It is strange and tragic too that more than ninety per cent of petroleum products consumed in the country is imported. This is because the four oil refineries in the country are only working in fits and starts. And no private refinery has come on stream yet despite the fact that the federal government has granted licences to a number of firms to establish oil refineries
in the country.
To be sure, Nigerians are no longer interested in whatever caused or is causing the lingering fuel scarcity. All they are interested in is the resolution of the problems that have led to the scarcity.
The escape route for many businesses and households in the country from the stranglehold of the energy crisis, which has resulted in the epileptic supply of electricity in the country, has been petrol and diesel. Businesses and households now run their own power plants using petrol and diesel.  But with petrol and diesel now becoming as scarce as gold, many households and businesses are having it very rough, and this has resulted in many businesses now operating at levels that are far below their installed capacity. As a cousequeace, of course, is low productivity and downsizing.
Given the debilitating impact of the fuel crisis on businesses and households and on the entire economy, the federal government through the appropriate ministry and parastatals must find a solution to it. It is also important that the crisis is addressed immediately because if it continues for a very long time, the damage to the economy will become even intractable and very difficult to repair. And the solution we are looking at is one that is permanent because we can ill afford to have fuel crisis almost every year.