5th September, 2013
Though Nigerians are just recovering from acute scarcity of kerosene, a major source of cooking gas used by the masses, there is the belief in many quarters that scarcity of the product will continue to linger.
In the last two months, the price of the product rose from N115 per litre to between N145 and N160 per litre. There has been no tangible excuse given for this development even though the Minister of Petroleum had consistently allayed fears and insisted the product should not be above N50 per litre.
During the recent scarcity, filling stations in many parts of the country turned down buyers.
A visit to some of the filling stations across Lagos and Ogun states during the crisis confirmed that residents would continue to face the harsh reality of this situation as most station owners blamed the government over its attitude towards the shortage of such major product in the country.
In an interview with the Chairman of the Lagos Zone of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Mr. Folorunso Oginni, he said the country’s dependence on fuel importation will continue to result in scarcity once in a while.
Oginni complained about the poor state of the four refineries in the country, saying they were not producing at full capacity.
He said: “There is a serious gap and that is what we have always clamoured against at the labour level. In as much as we depend on importation, we will always have this problem.”
Oginni stressed the importers’ disinterest in kerosene, which is a by-product of the refining process.
He said that is why the union has always insisted on self sufficiency
—Eromosele Ebhomole