#ReduceFuelPrice!!!!

As a growing child, some inventions fascinated me and the conglomerate of children on the street would set targets for our parents to have some of these inventions. They were the yardsticks for parental success and worth. First was the colored television. Whoever got it first opened an evening cinema and it didn’t take long for such person to mount prayers of success for the next person in order to decongest the crowd in his home. Next was the telephone and SIM card. I still don’t know the meaning of SIM but I know it was the small chip that made the parents partake in the concept of General Street Madness. Some of my childhood friends’ parents couldn’t afford it till we moved from that area. I am sure they would have gotten it now, it is a lot cheaper these days and the madness has stopped. The generator was just the cap of it all. Buying the one called i-pass-my-neighbor just increased your status, shuts the other house up and pollutes the vicinity with noise. But who could care, as the globes in the house shone with power and the appliances would come on, as the generator made more noise. In the new area we moved to, we all had generators so the size, capacity and length of hours it was left on, was the yardstick.

These inventions seemed like national progress on the totality. Of course more media houses sprouted; there is now interconnectivity, Nigeria joined the global village; every house has become a small electricity generating plant, whatever the government like they can do with their confused power generating strategies. The one that baffles, annoys or confuses me the most is the issue of fuel pump price. I won’t particularly say the cars were part of the yardstick, we all were pretty much not too bothered about jumping commercial buses, and after all where were we going? But the generators had to be fuelled and that is where and how I started getting used to the prices. But it is not knowing the price that forms the bane of this complaint today oh. It is the fact that the Nigerian populace has entered some kind of tolerance cum complacence that is the most insensible thing that ever happened to us as a people.

Yesterday, four days ago and even last two weeks I bought a litre of Petroleum Motor Spirit *PMS* for 250, 180 and 150 naira respectively. Two weeks after the “hoarding” began, 10 litres for the generator has become 2500. The ridiculous price is not surprising. There is no time to recount the ludicrous story behind the high prices and hoarding of the most essential product in the country. What I am angry about is that Nigerians have kept quiet. Nigerians have queued every other day at the stations. Nigerians have paid the higher amount to buy the fuel. Nigerians have paid higher transport fares to travel interstate and commute shorter distances. These same Nigerians who clamored for change and did the needful at the polls are the ones who have become this complacent to the rubbish.

Image from: breakingtimes.com 

In 1999 a litre of fuel was 20 naira. Yes 20 naira that would barely buy you Biscuits now. Today it is sold for 250 naira – this means I would have to forfeit eating Gala and La Casera, my traffic buddies, if I have to buy one litre. The thought of that should make me walk to Aso Rock and just burn it. Annoyingly the people in government don’t have to buy the fuel. They receive it from the so called marketers. The rich always have friends who run and own fuel stations and at one call, kegs pass from the tanker to their houses. In Lagos where I live, yes, it is true, only drivers go to the queues. After all, the boss has got work to do. I remember January 2012 when there was that ridiculous announcement on television from the presidency of the Subsidy scam. Nigerians occupied the nation. Walks, protests, standstill of the economy were the result of that act of the government. I remember the NLC strikes and the several close door meetings as our representatives forced the government to change fuel prices.

May 2015, the Nigerian populace has lost its power. We have lost our voice. We have lost our sanity. We would rather tolerate it all and just move on and wait on a date for things to change; like it is the date that brings about the change. Is it just me? Or has there been a movement begun against the insane queues to buy fuel and the funny prices the stations place on the product? For me, I would not buy fuel for any price above 100 naira again. Never! A litre of fuel cannot all of a sudden be equated with foreign currency. Whether it is the independent marketers causing it or it’s the government not doing the needful, there is meant to be a regulator. #ReduceFuelPrice is the new tag I am beginning because it is annoying. We have failed ourselves for letting this linger for this long and I won’t be surprise if this is ignored.

Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.