In an article titled “The Truth about the Fuel
crisis”, former spokesperson to former pres.
Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, said that it’s a shameful thing for a country like Nigeria to still be experiencing fuel queues when smaller countries like Togo, Benin Republic, Botswana and even Swaziland never experience such.

He drummed support for all the measures
being taken by the GMD of NNPC and Minister
of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe
Kachikwu. Read his article which he shared on
Facebook after the cut…

The minister of state for Petroleum is a
Nigerian I know by reputation only. When he
was appointed I actually wondered why on
earth will a man in his exalted international
position and pedigree come into the murky
arena of the Nigerian oil business. It can only
be patriotism.

Since he assumed office I have noticed a high
level of professionalism and candour.
But Nigerians abhor the truth. The minister
said a few weeks ago that it is cheaper to
import fuel than process our crude locally. I
thought that should be obvious to all discerning minds. Our newest refinery is 35years old.
The capacity of the refinery to fractionate
Crude reduces drastically with age.In its best
form you get about 51% PMS per barrel of
crude refined. But at the current ages of our
refineries we hardly can do more than 35-40%.

Therefore our policy of setting aside crude for
local refining is outdated and counter
productive and should be STOPPED.

Secondly the minister said this present fuel
crisis will tarry till May and all hell was let
loose. The Hon Minister is right.
He quietly informed the Nation that NNPC is
now responsible for 100% of our fuel imports.

The reason for this anomaly is not farfetched.
We consume 40m liters of PMS daily. At about
$645/tonne that comes to about 55cents per
liter is $22m/day. Which importer and which
bank in Nigeria of today can open $22m
daily?!!!! Not even the Almighty Nnpc! So that is the real cause of the scarcity. The truth is what the minister said, its not going away soonest.

The only reasonable, cost effective and
efficient way of ensuring Nigerians get
petroleum products regularly and continuously, without further complicating the unavailability
of the dollar and its continued stagnation of the national economy, is by :
1. Scrapping the PPRA

2. Stopping the allocation of crude daily for
local refining.

3. Allocating appropriate volume of crude to
the oil Majors under a transparent oil swap
arrangement.

4. Invest in and improve the facilities of
discharging PMS in all our Ports.

5. Completely deregulate the downstream
Sector of the petroleum and stop the federal
government from selling petrol.

Previous
Nigerian governments have sustained this
practice to their detriment. We need not
continue it especially in the face prevailing
economic hardship. It is not done anywhere
and citizens are the ultimate beneficiaries.

It is shameful and embarrassing that small
countries like Benin Republic, Togo and even
land locked countries like Botswana and
Swaziland do not have fuel queues.


- Doyin Okupe

It amazes me how basic,simple and necessary things of human existence in other worlds are seen as luxuries in Nigeria. Where is Tam david-west that said fuel will sell for 50 kobo when we vote Apc and Buhari?

SleekAboki:
It amazes me how basic,simple and necessary things of human existence in other worlds are seen as luxuries in Nigeria. Where is Tam david-west that said fuel will sell for 50 kobo when we vote Apc and Buhari?

If you can believe apc s.hits, you can believe anything..

The reason is simple.... they do not have over 250 ethnic groups like ours..... break ds into 3 or 4 countries, u go see as those problems disappear...

Here na 150 and dem even dey queue

Benin republic are on the average of 17hrs uninterrupted power supply(electricity)
Togo is on 19hrs per day on average electricity power supply. do not forget Lagos state alone generates internally twice of these countries annual budget in just five months....
Yet we lack clean DRINKING water,
And manage less than 3000mw.
Am sure after bubu's 8yrs the the incoming govt will still campaign with providing power supply. Benin don't even have any oil nah that one dey vess me pass yet we pay more and queue on filling stations on top.no light yet we pay more than these countries.
Am beginning to think heell fire is not far frm naija just N50 keke.

Becos they don't have a dullard in chief as president and Petroleum minister. Such an old dull being.

Chanji!!!
Sai Baba

this country tire me..... I need a visa

There's nothing surprising about the fact that fuel shortages don't exist in countries like Benin and Togo: that's exactly what one expects in a situation where the pricing and distribution is left completely to market forces.

What is really surprising is that even educated Nigerians refuse to accept that price caps and government intervention in all sectors of an industry can only lead to chronic shortages and misallocation of resources. Most Nigerians seem obsessed with the idea that all a government has to do is decree something and the laws of supply and demand will be magically abolished - hence the obsession with fuel subsidies that do nothing to actually make fuel cheaper, and a "strong" Naira that is really about funneling subsidized dollars to a few rich people like Aliko Dangote.

I personally have no time for the APC-PDP nonsense that so many people on here seem to love, as it seems to be more about thinly-veiled tribal jousting than anything to do with fact; neither of Nigeria's two parties has shown itself particularly competent thus far. What I will say, however, is that one thing Buhari 100% deserves condemnation for is his refusal to consider market-based solutions to any problems, despite all of his previous experience of failure with state-led policies. Buhari has refused to privatize the refineries or full deregulate the oil sector, and he has then compounded his error by driving away foreign investment through a "strong" Naira policy that only encourages the corruption he claims to be fighting!