President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Bringing Us Anything But Good Luck Since 2011? -By Oluwafemi Akinfolarin

Oluwafemi Akinfolarin

Bottom line is that the most important components of our economic and social activities – from communications to banking to healthcare to agriculture and transportation will be strangulated by this ongoing fuel scarcity which in its severity is unparalleled and which begs the question what are our government officials doing to resolve the issue?

Nigeria is slowly and surely grinding to a halt. How did we come to this sorry pass? This ridiculous and quite unbelievable sorry pass where government is simply absent? This is the worst fuel scarcity we have ever experienced. Refined petroleum products are not being imported; neither are the remaining dredges at depots being distributed. The Independent Marketers are not importing and the distribution unions have gone on strike; and since everything in Nigeria runs on petrol or diesel, the economy and the country is simply grinding to a screeching halt.

Let me describe this situation clearly, so my fellow travellers have a holistic grasp of our comedic predicament. Police patrol vans have stopped patrolling our neighborhoods, so security across the country is slowing disintegrating. As one of my Facebook friends said, “we can only pray that thieves are equally affected by the fuel scarcity.” Communications is steadily being degraded as companies like MTN whose services weren’t even of the highest quality have started warning of further disruptions to their already dismal services; same with Airtel.

Electricity is much worse. Previously, power from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was used in most Nigerian households as backup while the main power came from the generator, fueled by diesel or petrol. Now that option is gone, fuel for generators has vanished so Nigerians can’t power their generators, talk less their cars. That also means, we can’t pump water to use in our houses. For instance, I understand diesel for generating power has run out at the 1004 estates, so people are now physically moving water up flights of stairs. The same is playing out across households all over Nigeria.

President Jonathan is busy attending thanksgiving services at churches across Nigeria while studiously refusing to comment on the ongoing fuel situation. I believe he has mentally checked out of office already.

Banks have also joined the gradual winding down, as Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) sent out mails to all their customers that they would be shutting down their branches by 1pm going forward. Other Banks will surely follow. The implication is that various other channels like ATMs might soon follow. If you can’t keep your branches and head offices open, then you can’t maintain your operations.

What about essential services like hospitals and the armed forces fighting Boko Haram in the North? Private and public hospitals have to buy their fuel through the private market and will soon be shut. Lagos is lucky because public hospitals are connected to the Lagos Independent Power Projects (IPPs). Federal parastatals that are heavily fuel reliant like the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) will also be hard hit leading to increased mortality on the expressway. Members of our armed forces fighting Boko Haram in the North-East require petroleum products to move around and thus the campaign might be impeded. Hopefully Boko Haram will also be affected though I suspect they will just cross the border and steal from areas they attack.

…it is obvious that Nigerians are on their own until Mr. Buhari takes over on the 29th.

Bottom line is that the most important components of our economic and social activities – from communications to banking to healthcare to agriculture and transportation will be strangulated by this ongoing fuel scarcity which in its severity is unparalleled and which begs the question what are our government officials doing to resolve the issue?

President Jonathan is busy attending thanksgiving services at churches across Nigeria while studiously refusing to comment on the ongoing fuel situation. I believe he has mentally checked out of office already. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala met with independent marketers two weeks ago and came out of that meeting smiling with a promise that the situation would change immediately since the marketers would be paid. The situation has only gotten worse and she has since jetted off to Yale to collect an award while the economy for which she is responsible has grounded to a halt. She also, I believe, has abdicated responsibility and switched off. Mrs. Dieziani has never even taken responsibility when things were going well but now at the highpoint of the scarcity, she has jetted off to London (on the same flight as Mr. Buhari), in a desperate attempt to starve off the punishment, she knows is surely coming from the new administration. She hasn’t merely switched off, she never cared. The normal noise makers, Reuben Abati and Doyin Okupe have disappeared from sight so it is obvious that Nigerians are on their own until Mr. Buhari takes over on the 29th.

I would propose that he does the following. Declare a national emergency, withdraw monies from the excess crude account which now has $2.07b and order NNPC to import refined petroleum. Then send out the army to requisition all tankers presently owned by striking union members and use them to distribute petrol across Nigeria, if the unions do not cooperate. Subsequent to which he can pay the owners for usage. I know people would say this is not a dictatorship, but desperate times require desperate measures and the same thing was done by Ronald Reagan in the US when Air Traffic workers went on strike. He chased them out of the control towers and used military air traffic controllers until the situation stabilised.

It’s a new dawn for Nigeria but a sad end for the Jonathan administration because this is what he will be remembered for.

Oluwafemi Akinfolarin, a lawyer, writes from Lagos.

*This piece was written in the thick of the Nigerian fuel scarcity, which appears to be thawing gradually at the moment.