It was a relapse to the painful past when Nigerians woke up last week to find queues at filling stations across the country. Petrol was scarce again! Most of the queues stretched into highways and caused terrible traffic snarls.
Shortly before this latest experience, several Nigerian motorists have had the engine of their vehicles damaged as a result of contaminated fuel imported by some of the petroleum marketers. And the excuse was that there was too much ethanol content in the imported petrol. Not a few cars were damaged, most of whom are already contemplating class action against the marketers and perhaps the Department of Petroleum Resources, (DPR) whose duty it is to confirm the quality of petroleum products being imported for consumption in the country.
DPR may have dealt well with the initial case of contaminated fuel importation, it is surprising to hear now that another three ship loads of same type of fuel with 20% ethanol content (instead of the 10% ethanol-content permitted) were being imported again to the country. The report is that the vessels bearing these ethanol-ladenned petrol had to be returned from mid-sea recently to the countries from where they were being imported.
Yet, NNPC sources explain that beside the ethanol issue, one of the three major marketers, Texaco had labour-related issues with its staff, which, in a way, disrupted operation flow of the company. Mobil and Oando were the ones involved in the importation of the foul fuel.
But all these plethora of reasons came against the background that the Federal Government had, since the beginning of the year awarded till December, the licenses for the importation of fuel into the country.
If this had been settled from the beginning of the year, one would have thought the essence is to have uninterrupted supply flow with standard set. But the harsh experience of Nigerians is an odious throw-back to a nasty past and puts a question mark on the importation contracts so awarded
The other question remains whether or not the DPR is still alive to its responsibility. We had in an earlier editorial praised the department for its timely response to the first case of contaminated fuel. But it seems the unit had since gone to sleep given the new report. Where were they again when importers still loaded ship with fuel considered dangerous to Nigerian vehicles?
In all, the blame lands squarely on the table of government. It is bad enough that, after all the huge sum pumped into the repairs of the nation’s refineries, we are yet in the business of importing fuel, yet it is worse that we can no longer import even the right and proper fuel.
We believe it is either a mark of dereliction of duty, or that the DPR is deliberately being protective of those persons keen on bringing in unsuitable petrol. Either way, the DPR deserves severe reprimand for the present impasse.
We expect that those oil marketing companies that have caused this needless pain should be brought to book by the concerned authorities. If this is not done or seen to have been done, we may be left with no option than to conclude that the crisis is contrived and a programmed confusion as a result of high-level conspiracy.
The period the scarcity lasted visited untold hardship on many Nigerians with all the concomitant losses suffered by the citizenry. This can hardly be the face of a government with a human face. It is such contrived hardship that sometimes causes desperation on the part of the poor and lowly as to take extreme steps in making ends meet. Little wonder that at the slightest sign of fuel scarcity, the black market springs up with an army of burgeoning youths willing to make dangerous brisk business selling petrol along the road
We call on the government to work out a more enduring strategy that will not only enhance steady supply of petrol, but also and more importantly, encourage local refining of petroleum products, not only by making our refineries produce at maximum capacity, but also encouraging privately licensed refineries to commence production. Only then will this periodic pain come to an end.
