Premium Times
Fuel scarcity worsened across Nigeria weekend despite repeated assurances from the government that the crisis would soon be over.
Queues persisted in Abuja, Lagos and several other cities throughout last week and early Monday as people scrambled to get petrol for their cars and their electricity generators at a time of rising temperatures.
The crisis, which has lingered for weeks — and in some places like Abuja, for several months — continued despite the federal government saying it has sufficient stock of petroleum products for distribution across the country.
“This experience is too harsh on us. Nigerians are suffering and smiling because if you cry you will be punished, so we are pretending to be happy and we are not happy,” a civil servant at the station who gave her name as Mrs Eze said.
“We are being deprived of what we are supposed to get. I think the reason why the government kept quiet is that everything is easy for them, you can’t see them queuing up like this.”
Nigerians especially in Abuja have endured an unpredictable supply of fuel for nearly a year now, with filling stations operating at reduced capacity.
The crisis started in 2021 after the government announced its plan to remove fuel subsidies. Marketers, who the regulators accuse of hoarding the product, have refused to resume normal operations even after the suspension of the subsidy removal plan.
