Why fuel scarcity will keep resurfacing for long – TUC president

President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Festus Osifo has blamed the lingering fuel scarcity in the country on distribution logistics challenges and will continue resurfacing intermittently until decisive steps are taken to fix pipelines and depots in the country.

Mr Osifo, who appeared on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ on Wednesday evening, said Nigeria was not taking advantage of the country’s available depots.

“We have about 21 depots in Nigeria across the nooks and crannies of the country. If those depots were working, you wouldn’t have these kinds of logistics challenges,” he said.

The TUC president, also the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), recommended salvaging the neglected depots.

“Even if the queues go away in the next one week, we cannot guarantee that after another one month, it will not return because we are always going to have challenges in the logistics,” he said.

Mr Osifo said the depots could be a strategic buffer to address logistical challenges.

He said Nigeria should either fix the pipelines “so that those coastal areas could feed the hinterland number” or have put in place “strategic reserves across the length and breadth of the country, maybe in the six geopolitical zones.”

Reason for fuel scarcity

Nigeria has faced recurring fuel scarcity since the beginning of the year.

Earlier in July, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) attributed the problem to logistics challenges faced in transferring the product from mother vessels to daughter vessels.

In a terse statement on Sunday, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC Limited, Olufemi Soneye, addressed the recent episode and blamed it on “distribution challenges.”

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“The Company further urges motorists to shun panic buying as it is working round the clock with relevant stakeholders to restore normalcy,” the two-paragraph statement read.

Also, during a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, the Vice President of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Retail Limited (NNPC Retail), Dapo Segun, said fuel scarcity is due to adverse weather conditions, including the impact of rains, lightning, and thunderstorms, which he said are beyond their control.

Mr Segun apologised to Nigerians and assured them that efforts were being made to solve the problem.

Despite being an oil-producing country, the unending queues at filling stations have become a norm in Nigeria.

Since President Bola Tinubu declared the removal of fuel subsidies during his inauguration in May last year, petrol has soared from less than N200 to as much as N1,000 in some parts of the country.