Nigeria’s fuel crisis looks set to end just in time for its new president

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With the country facing the real
prospect of its economy
grinding to a halt , Nigerians
received good news that the
current fuel crisis, easily the
worst in recent times, will be
resolved immediately.
The crisis was caused by strike
actions by local petroleum
marketers and transporters over
the failure of Africa’s largest oil
producer to pay bills of up to $1
billion in fuel subsidy
payments.
The strike was called off after
an agreement was reached
between the Major Oil
Marketers Association of Nigeria
(MOMAN), the national oil
company NNPC and the
government as well as other key
players in the oil and gas
business.
The oil marketers, who import
refined petroleum products due
to a lack of local oil refineries,
said they’d begin lifting and
supplying petroleum products
across the country. This could
see some normalcy begin to
return to the country after a
few difficult weeks which has
seen major roads blocked by
fuel queues.
Nigeria’s notoriously
erratic power supply worsened
over the last four weeks, as gas
supply to the country’s main
power stations dwindled. The
situation was exacerbated by a
scarcity of diesel fuel which
many businesses use to run
electric generators to enable
them provide consumer
services. Several
major businesses including
telecommunications companies,
radio stations, public services
and banks have either curtailed
or shut down operations
The strike may have been called
off, and queues may very well
soon disappear, but it will still
take a while for full operations
to resume across Nigeria.
The fallout of the fuel crisis will
still be dealt with by incoming
president, Muhammadu Buhari
who will be inaugurated on
May 29. Magnus Abe, chairman
of the Senate committee on
petroleum resources, said one
of the concessions to enable the
end of the strike meant the new
government would be
committed to paying off the
outstanding claims to the
marketers.
Buhari’s government will have
to make an immediate decision
on the subsidy on fuel which
was fiercely opposed by
Nigerians when initially
proposed by president
Jonathan’s administration in
2012. Whether Buhari’s
government decide to keep it in
place or remove, care must be
taken to ensure that the country
is not faced with the possibility
of a similar shutdown in
activities due to fuel shortages.