Nigeria's Christmas season hit by fuel scarcity

by Bosun Awoniyi

LAGOS, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- The fuel scarcity has turned the festive run-up to Christmas and New Year into an expensive struggle for petrol for many Nigerians.

Despite a planned strike by the country's oil union, which led to panic buying and hoarding before it was canceled, respite was yet to be felt as long queues had surfaced in most parts of the country with black market fuel sellers exploiting the situation.

Motorists have decried the scarcity of petrol in most filling stations in Lagos, saying it will affect those travelling for Christmas and New Year holidays.

The fuel queues are already causing a buildup of traffic on major expressways.

And as the fuel crisis, which deepened in the last few days, raised the cost of transportation, it became common for bus stops to be crowded with stranded commuters.

The pump price of petrol now goes for about 250 naira per liter (0.7 U.S. dollar) in most filling stations.

The ordeal of motorists was worsened by the alleged shady deals by officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) mega stations, who sold fuel at night to other independent marketers.

The marketers in turn sell at exorbitant prices in their stations.

Akin Lewis, a passenger traveling to central-northern Kwara State from Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub, said the cost of the trip used to be 2,000 naira, which went up to 5,000 on Friday.

Similarly, transport fare from Lagos to other parts of the country have increased by almost 100 percent, passengers said.

Some of the drivers at the parks visited by Xinhua decried the situation, urging the government to take urgent actions before the issue got out of hand.

Bola Ahmed, a driver, said it was the high cost of buying petrol that led to increment in transportation fare.

Even some hairstylists in Lagos increased the cost of hairdos due to the prevailing fuel scarcity being experienced in the city.

The costs of hairdos at most salons are usually high ahead of Christmas celebration but the hike this year was astronomical.

Titi Alagba, a hair stylist, attributed the increase in price of hairdos to the scarcity of fuel, leading to long queues in most filling stations.

Amos Akanni, a civil servant with the Lagos State Government, said he had visited more than 20 filling stations in Lagos without getting the product.

Akanni said he opted to buy from the black market at 400 naira per liter when he could not get the product to buy at filling stations.

Maikanti Baru, group managing director of NNPC, blamed the current petroleum scarcity in the country on marketers of the product.

He also said part of the problem was the rumors about purported planned increase in the pump price of petrol, noting that some marketers, in their quest to cash in on the situation, suddenly started hoarding products.

He assured that the corporation had doubled its daily supply of petrol, from 700 trucks (about 27 million to 30 million liters) to 80 million liters since the current hiccup in the supply chain was noticed a few days back.

He further assured Nigerians that the NNPC had enough products sufficiency that would last up to 30 days and that the fuel situation would fizzle out this week. Enditem