OPEN LETTER TO THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY AND ALL PETROL DEALERS IN THE NIGERIA BY LIVING LEGEND
Nigeria a land flowing with milk and honey, so we say, a land with lots of mineral and natural endowment, the giant of Africa. Indeed the wealth of the country called Nigeria is well enough to cater for the wellbeing of the citizens of the country but yet we have seen ourselves languishing in penury and over 70% of the citizens languish in poverty.
It is widely said by a lot of people that the problem that this country faces right from time immemorial has been the problem of bad leadership, but it could be argued that majority of the problems faced by Nigerians are caused mostly by the followers than the leaders because there is a very wide gap between the rich or the very privileged and the poor masses. Although critically speaking, the decisions made by this very few minority who are directing the affairs of this nation has a strong hold on the poor masses but the effect would not have been so painful on the masses if not for the few privileged and greedy masses inflicting pain on their fellow masses, instead of sharing the pain from the leaders evenly it is being over-concentrated on some particular group or set of individuals.
One of the irony of life which I have witnessed in recent years, has been how a gateman will oppress, victimize his fellow citizen who came looking for his boss all in the name of that very little position he is occupying at the moment, how the arrogance of clerks and secretary in offices are greater than that of their rich boss, we have turned every little position given to us into a kingship state to oppress our fellow humans, the bond and unity within the traditional African society where we see ourselves as brothers and sisters is eroding away at a very high rate and this has caused my pen to cry again concerning the scarcity of fuel and the high price being demanded by petrol dealers in recent weeks.
It is the prayer in the mouth of most Nigerians that this nation should be good and great but our actions are not in any way supporting our acclaimed professions, very early in the month of may 2015, there was a case of fuel scarcity in Nigeria resulting from the strike of the petrol dealers within the country. I am not writing or probing into the actual cause of the strike, but I write to give a critical examination into the actions that transpired during the period of the strike and after the strike
First, immediately the strike was announced major petrol dealers began to hurled there markets by locking up their feeling station in other to create a scenario of fuel scarcity which the after math was to increase the cost of purchasing liters of fuel. This very action is against humanism as the locking up off petrol station further inflicted more pain on the suffering of the poor Nigerian masses who have to suffer to even purchase what they need at a very high cost, the queue in the sun, at night, early in the morning has in no way affected the health and integrity of Nigerians, and one way or the other damage our trust towards one another. I cannot but ask petrol dealers a very fundamental question, why should you make this poor masses who are suffering from the government also suffer from you for no just cause? knowing full well that those who cause the crises (government) are not been affected in any way, because hardly do they buy fuel from the local feeling stations we find around and even if they do they will never go through the pain of forming a queue, so it turns to a case of fighting the bourgeoisie to inflict pain on ourselves and innocent people.
Furthermore, should fuel scarcity lead to increase in the sales price of fuel? there was a strike because the government refuse to pay some outstanding debt and not that there was an increase in the cost of refining oil or exporting the oil among others, but we seek an opportunity to inflict pain on ourselves, must it always be a case that any little strike in the petroleum industry must lead to increase in the price of commodity and disobedience to the regulating body that controls the price of fuel? Why must we Nigerians take unnecessary advantage of ourselves, why should we turn to an opportunist? This act is very bad and dehumanizing which calls for serious attention and the sad part is that, even after the emergence of fuel in the petrol stations, some or most fuel station has refused to go back to their normal price instead they have proved themselves to be an advocate of evil in the land who do not want good thing in the nation. They have become an apostle of doom who seeks to always take advantage of their fellow poor masses to exploit them at any slightest problem; it then means they were never even praying for the improvement of the country at first but rather agitating in anticipation for evil things to happen so as to take advantage of people.
A lot of things to just mention a few transpired during any uprising within the petroleum industry which point to the fact that most petrol dealers in Nigeria are more or less exploiter of the masses, even after the price of petrol has been reduced to 87 naira per liter, most petrol dealers have instead stock to 100naira per liters which was sold in the past, from my observation, I prescribe to the incoming administration of the federal republic of Nigeria that high level of disciplinary measure should be put in place to curtail any abnormities in the industry most especially during cases of industrial actions as they perpetrate a lot of unjust act during this period.
Lastly, I appeal to petrol dealer in Nigeria to turn a new leaf and embrace the spirit of unity, oneness, togetherness and patriotism. I am not saying that they should not fight for their right but they should not turn themselves to opportunists who take undue privilege on the poor masses whenever they are fighting for their right. They should be moderate in whatever they are doing and let Nigerians be able to enjoy their services properly even if there is a lingering problem, I can’t imagine that fuel price could be as high as 200 naira, in fact 500naira per liter in some places, which is making the nation’s economy to head into a waterloo, let those who have fuel at that time sell it, not selling it will only amount to the fact that they are praying that the issue should not be resolved and the future of their fathers land should remain in a state of jeopardy.
Kindly drop your comments and reactions.
GOD BLESS THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
GOD BLESS NIGERIA
LIVING LEGEND
VOICE OF THE VOICELESS
CEO LEGENDARY FOUNDATION
GEMSTONE AMBASSADOR
#NATION BUILDER#