Residents lament pains of fuel scarcity

Tales of hardship and suffering, as well as brisk business, mark fuel scarcity in the state, writes FOLASHADE ADEBAYO

A makeup artist, Mrs. Benita Adedeji, raced to the gates of Lado Oil, a filling station in the Agbado-Oja area of Lagos, on Saturday. Her intention was to beat other residents in dire need of the Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, to it. But she was disappointed, as attendants at the filling station maintained they did not have fuel.

“I thought it was a ploy to send me back. I was determined to get fuel and that was why I left my children so early. My calculation was to be among the first five people because I hate queuing.

“But I was not lucky, as it turned out the filling station truly did not have fuel. Meanwhile, I had already wasted two hours waiting. By the time I got to another filling station where fuel was being sold, the queue was unbearable,” she recalled.

Maxwell Okoli, another resident, had a more dramatic experience at the height of the fuel scarcity in Lagos last week. Okoli, a businessman, was driving along the Berger end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when he noticed a small number of cars on a queue at an Oando filling station.

As he made to drive in, Okoli said he was turned back. According to him, only exotic-looking cars were allowed access.

“It was really shocking. I drive a 2001 Nissan Maxima and I was running on reserve that fateful day. You would not believe that only the Prados, Infinities and Range Rovers were allowed to buy fuel. One of the attendants told me they were only attending to their loyal customers. I had to devise a means to talk to the manager, a woman, who later agreed to sell only 10 litres for me.

“The irony was that they were selling at the normal price of N87 and they demanded no tip. But it did not make sense to me at all,” he said.

Okoli and Adedeji were only two of thousands of residents who tasted the bitter pill of fuel scarcity last week. From one local government to the other, tales of hardship abound all in the efforts to buy the commodity, as vehicles waited in impossibly long queues at filling stations.

Consequently, many businesses were crippled, while transport costs shot through the roof. A hair stylist, Monsurat Adeniji, said she lost many customers during the course of last week. She said the fuel crisis ensured that she could only do some kinds of hair styles.

“People like me depend on women who want to retouch and set their hair. But where would I get the fuel to power my generator? There was no light in my area last week, as if it was all a conspiracy against people like me. I could only weave hair, fix weave-on and plait Ghana weaving. I did not contemplate going to queue, as I would have missed other small jobs,” she said.

Beyond the stress imposed on Lagosians by the scarcity, our correspondent also observed that unemployed youths took advantage of the scarcity, selling fuel in jerry cans. Usually, they were stationed very close to filling stations, where they shopped for eager buyers who could afford the exorbitant price.

The price of the commodity also skyrocketed from filling stations to black markets. According to Adedeji, the fuel she bought on Wednesday at Lado Oil, Agbado, sold at N100 per litre. But it was even higher in places like Yaba and Victoria Island, where black market reportedly sold for N300 per litre.

Though Ejiro Benson, a graphic artist who lives in the Yaba area of the state, said he did not go through the rigours, he admitted that his wife and younger brother literally saw hell in a bid to buy 50 litres of fuel on Thursday.

“They spent the entire day at the filling station. While the queue for motorists occupied two pumps, the queue for jerry cans spilled into the streets. The chaos actually started when the selling began. My wife would have returned home empty-handed had my brother not followed her.

“We would not have bothered because I had a full tank by Tuesday last week, but we had to power our generator because we normally stock different types of soup in the refrigerator. It is really a sad narrative that we still struggle to buy fuel at this stage of our national development,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, analysts have said the hardship experienced last week by Lagosians, and the crippling of commercial activities in the state was a deliberate strategy by fuel marketers. Energy analyst, Mr. Bala Zakka, told our correspondent on Monday that the scarcity in Lagos and Abuja was meant to send a strong signal to the Federal Government.

“Lagos and Abuja are the centres of major activities in the country. When you look at the volume of vehicular movement and aggregate activities that move Nigeria forward on a daily basis, then it is Lagos. Most companies in Nigeria have their head offices in Lagos and it simply means running generators for 24 hours.

“Fuel marketers complained that they are being owed by the outgoing government. They are apprehensive that the 2015 budget made no provision for subsidy and we are now in the second quarter of the year. They feared that they might not get their money if they did not coax the outgoing government,” he said.

While calling on the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, to probe the fuel subsidy arrangement, a former National Industrial Officer, Petroleum and National Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Mr. Hygenus Onuegbu, said fuel marketers decided to visit hardship on residents of Lagos and Abuja to pressure the Federal Government.

“The incoming government should probe the fuel subsidy management process and find out if it is really benefiting Nigeria or the fuel cartel. Some people are buying private jets through this fuel subsidy deal and the rest of us are suffering,” he said.

Though it does not have the statistics on the number of vehicles plying Lagos roads on a daily basis, the Lagos State Bureau of Statistics said some 220,000 people used its Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority buses per day in 2009. In the same year, it says, more than 14 million people used its LAGBUSes in a day.

The state government also recently disclosed that there are 12,617 taxi drivers and 100,882 taxi cabs registered in the state.