“Nigeria is such a useless country with all these things that happen to us from time to time. Boko Haram is killing people for fun in the North and here in Lagos, we are battling fuel scarcity.
* A file photo of queue at a fuel station
“When are we going to have sanity in all the sectors in this coutry for goodness sake?”
Those were the lamentations of Ahmed Bello, a roadside vulcanizer in Ketu area of Lagos State over the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol.
For the common Nigerians, living has not been a ‘rosy’affair’ due to the untold hardship that the state of the nation brings.
But the hardship that has confronted them since the current petroleum scarcity began is like the proverbial saying: ‘From fire to frying pan’.
Tagged the ‘commercial capital’ of the country, Lagos residents, especially artisans, motorists and other ordinary masses have been going through tough times, to say the least, since over a week ago that the scarcity of fuel started again in Lagos.
“Where would I have gotten fuel from? If you can get fuel for me, I will gladly pay you for it,” Baba Segun, a commercial bus driver that plies Ikorodu road, shouted angrily at one of his passengers who complained about the hike in transport fares.
“You think it is normal for me to make just three return trips in a day? Fuel is scarce and work has not been the same. We queue for hours before we can get fuel, it’s crazy but that is what we have had to cope with,” he added with a frowned face.
For Mr Lanre Gidadi, owner of a football viewing centre in Ojota, he has to pay through his nose to get fuel to power his viewing centre in order to satisfy football fans’clients.
“We just have to meet up with people’s demand to watch football matches, not even now that the Champions League is hotting up.
“Believe me, the petrol scarcity has really affected my business but like I said, we cannot afford to disappoint football fans who expect so much from us.”
With an average of about N2,000 being spent on petrol weekly, Mrs. Veronica Jackson, a widow, said she has already stopped buying petrol to power their generating set because she cannot expose her children to violence which is often associated with the struggle to buy fuel at petrol stations.
“We spend about N2,500 per weekly sometime to power our generator for my meagre business but with what is happening in the country presently, everything has been quiet.
“My frozen food business has been left in jeopardy due to the untold hardship which the fuel scarcity has brought upon us but I hope for the best as soon as possible” the mother of five stated.
With more petrol stations closing up; some saving the fuel they have for the ‘rainy’ day and some totally dry, the few stations selling petrol are almost inaccessible.
Such is the struggle for fuel that a fuel pump attendant at the Conoil Filling station on Capitol road in Agege was almost beaten up by a customer.
“You people are very heartless. How can you add N50 to the amount we pay for fuel just because there’s scarcity?
“Transporters have increased transport fares, do we also have to pay extra to buy fuel when others have not increased their price,” an unidentified man in his early thirties queried a petrol manager at the weekend.
With long queues still persist at most filing stations in Lagos, it is hoped that NNPC and the Federal Government would find a lasting solution to the perennial fuel scarcity, not only in Lagos State but also other parts of the country, in no distant future.
