Fuel Scarcity: SING Nigeria calls for urgent action to save economy

The Sustainable Initiatives for Nurturing Growth (SING) Nigeria, has called for urgent action to assuage Nigerians following hardship occasioned by the lingering fuel scarcity.

SING Nigeria, in a statement signed by its Programme Officer, Ms Obianuju Illoanya, on Wednesday, decried the harsh economic reality on ordinary Nigerians, and urged stakeholders to leave up to their promises.

Illoanya also called for urgent action to normalise fuel supply and save the nation’s economy from collapse.

She recalled that the fuel queues which started on Feb. 4, have continued unabated, impacting every segment of the society.

“Earlier reports attributed the scarcity to discovery of high methanol levels which were said to be higher than the national specifications of 2-3 per cent in imported gasoline.

“It was alleged that about 100 million litres of the contaminated fuel were imported and distributed in the last week of January 2022.

“While the government took every turn to assure Nigerians that the fuel crisis would soon be over, the queues have continued to linger for weeks, especially in Abuja.

“Nigerians spend hours, days and nights on queues jostling for insufficient fuel in circulation,” Illoanya said.

She also bemoaned the unbearable skyrocketing price of diesel, which many businesses can no longer afford, with the price currently between N700 and N800 per litre.

“Last week, the nation’s aviation industry threatened to ground flight operations due to soaring prices of aviation fuel (Jet-A1), with airlines buying the fuel at N670, a swift departure from the regular price of N190 recently.

“These situations have been compounded by the reported collapse of the national grid, with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) trading blames with Generation Companies (GenCos) for low power generation, while Nigerians continue to suffer economic losses of alarming magnitude”.

The SING Nigeria programme officer reiterated the organisation’s call for urgent actions that would address the crises and save the nation’s economy that is “already battling to recover from the effect of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine which had caused global economy problem.

Illoanya further stated that the current energy crisis, if not urgently mitigated, would further cripple the nation’s post-COVID-19 economy recovery efforts.

She urged President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, to ensure that the current crises were resolved as quickly as possible.

“Industry regulators must up their antes by improving their oversight functions to stabilise prices and discourage fuel hoarding as currently witnessed in the country”.