Ingenious Ways Ibadan-Warri Commercial Drivers Deploy To Stay In Business -Eye Witness Account
The Oasis Reporters
March 12, 2022
By Greg Abolo
Nigeria, a significant African leading crude oil producer currently continues to reel under crippling fuel shortages coupled with a near lack of public electricity. There are long queues, issues of adulteration and hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) all over the country.
Mele Kyari is busy offering assurances up and down, but Nigerians know the trauma they are facing at petrol stations.
We are resolving our issues, supply is robust, distribution is being sorted, support from partners and stakeholders massive, seeking further understanding of Nigerians as we move towards normalcy. pic.twitter.com/fTa7I1Wwzz
— Mele Kyari (@MKKyari) March 6, 2022
VIDEO NEWS:📹
— NNPCLimited (@NNPCgroup) March 6, 2022
This evening, GMD/CEO #NNPC Ltd, Mallam @MKKyari, ED Distribution, The Authority (NMDPRA), Mr. Ogbugo Ukoha and top management of NNPC inspected filling stations as part of efforts to ramp up the improving fuel supply situation in Abuja & other parts of the country pic.twitter.com/elPbBCXMcm
Despite mouthing the idea of pulling Nigerians out of debilitating poverty, the All Progressve Congress, (APC) led government seems at crossroads, unable to help Nigerians design their own pathways out of debilitating poverty. Neither can they solve the issues themselves.
Though the drivers of deep-seated poverty are many and complex in Nigeria, one of the strongest impediments to building stronger livelihoods is the never ending old story of energy shortages.
Old newspapers that social media users are unearthing include that of a Josy Ajiboye cartoon which depict then Federal Commissioner for petroleum, Col. Muhammadu Buhari offering promises on fuel supplies. This was in the mid 1970s, and almost 45 years after, the same person is the country’s president and it is obvious that rising to the occasion of petrol sufficiency remains a sad mirage.
Drivers plying the Ibadan-Warri route are showing remarkable resilience and ingenuity to stay on the road without getting stranded, so as to enable them put food on the table for their families.
The driver leaves Ibadan with barely enough fuel to take him to Ore, a national petrol depot town in Ondo State. There, he purchases enough petrol to fill his tank at the pricey cost of 220 to 250 naira per liter. Sometimes as high as 300 naira per liter.
The purchase takes him to Warri, a refinery town. Once again, he fills his petrol tank that takes him back on his return trip. At Ore, he fills it up again. That, not only takes him back, but gives him enough quantity back from Ibadan to Ore, then Warri. Thus, vehicle drivers need not find unavailable fuel in Ibadan city, because those who own generators have no petrol to power them with.
Thus deep freezers smell like mortuary surroundings because IBEDC the electricity undertakers would supply no power, neither is fuel available to power generating sets.
That is the lot of lack of capacity, ability to think through and sheer incompetence in political governance.
