“This conspiracy of silence on fuel scarcity & hike in price is legendary!” Reactions As Marketers, including NNPC stations, hike prices second time in less than 60 days
The prices of premium motor spirit (PMS) popular called petrol on Wednesday ballooned again to as high as N400 per litre In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, Platforms Africa reports.
This came as Nigerians bemoaned what they called “conspiracy of silence” over the hike in petrol price for the second time in less than 60 days. The government is paying over N1 trillion subsidy, starting from this January to March, on same fuel being bought at high prices by Nigerians. It paid over N1.9 trillion on subsidy between January and April, 2022.
Before this, Nigeria, Africa’s biggest exporter of crude oil, has since the last quarter of 2022 been battling fuel crisis with many stations and marketers selling the product at N250 per litre while queues were seen at a few stations that dispensed the product at N175 per litre.
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The situation, however, degenerated on Wednesday with a fresh hike by the two groups of marketers.
While the first group who are majorly the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and major marketers franchise stations hiked the price from N175 to N200 per litre, the second group consisting of independent marketers increased their prices from N250 to between N300 and N400 Per Litre.
Platforms Africa reports that long queues were at major marketers in Lagos including Mobil, TotalEnergies, NIPCO, and OVH who sold the product at N175 per litre on Wednesday.
Conspiracy of Silence
Meanwhile, some Nigerians have taken to social media to query what they called the silence of major media on the situation.
A journalist and rights activist, Oba Adeoye, wrote on his Facebook page; “This conspiracy of silence on fuel scarcity & hike in price is legendary! Everyone just carries on as if nothing is wrong. O ga o.”
Yetunde Boade added; “Hmmm….speechless…so tired of this country 😪”
Reacting to Adeoye’s update, Sanyaolu Femi Adejare wrote; “Abnormalities can never be wrong in an insane society now….. Does anything seems normal in here?!”
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Layinka Adagun gave a twist to it as he wrote; “We shall address the issue after elections.”
N400 per litre
A survey by Platforms Africa on Wednesday in Lagos showed that the NNPC outlet at Ekoro Junction along Abule-Egba-Command road sold the product at N300 per litre. The situation was the same at the NNPC in Awori, along Lagos-Abeokuta expressway where a litre of the product was sold for N250 per litre. The two stations were, before Wednesday, selling at N175 per litre.
The Petrocam filling station on LASU-Iyana-Iba Road, sold the product at N400 per liter. Commuters said the station, which hirtherto increased the price to N250 in December 2022, hiked the price again on Tuesday.
While more stations shut their gates against motorists, long queues of vehicles and jericans were seen at Mobil and Total, the two filling stations along the Iba expressway, that sold at N175 per litre.
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“That is what we, the commercial bus drivers, face on daily basis, We can not wait and queue up at filling stations selling at the “normal pruce” because of the nature of our business and when we get to stations where there is no queue, we are made to buy at exorbitant prices. We bought N400 per litre at Petrocam because we have no choice,” Sakibu Oriyomi said in Yoruba language during a chat with Platforms Africa.
All filling stations in Ota, except Mobil at Oja Ota and Estate gate, sold the product between N250 and N350 per litre.
N1.94trn Subsidy In 4 Months
The Nigerian Government recorded a N3.09 trillion deficit in its 2022 budget implementation between January and April as subsidy on fuel gulped N1.94 trillion, exceeding revenue for the period by 19 per cent.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this at the Public Consultative Forum on the draft federal government 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Fiscal Framework & Fiscal Strategy, in Abuja, on July 21, 2022.
