ECONOMY: Nigerians Enraged Over Proposed Fuel Price Hike

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Dec 2 1998 (IPS) - The proposed fuel price hike in Nigeria has come under fire by Nigerians who say the rise will cripple the economy and hit the poor more.

“It is unfortunate, sad and despicable”, said the National Council of Muslim Youth Organisation of Nigeria (NACOMYO), in a statement signed by its chairman, Ishaq Sanni, following reports that the country’s powerful traditional rulers have endorsed the hike.

Mohamed Haruna, who is General Abdulsalaam Abubakar’s press secretary, said the traditional rulers had “endorsed the fuel price increase” after meeting the Head of State recently.

The current debate on fuel, an essential product which is currently scarce in Nigeria, was sparked by Aret Adams, who is special adviser on Petroleum Resources to Abubakar, when he hinted that fuel price would be increased. “Fuel will be available nationwide before the end of the year, but we must all be prepared to pay increased costs,” he said.

Nigeria, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its 12th largest producer, produces two million barrels of crude oil per day.

Nigerians have warned that the proposed hike would trigger social unrest and derail the country’s transition to civilian rule, slated for May 1999.

A similar increase in the price of fuel in October 1993 from four US cents to 13 cents, threw the country into chaos as commuters, mostly civil servants, went on rampage, damaging vehicles and government property.

The Lagos-based enviromental group, Shelter Rights Initiative, said in 1993 “Nigerians were told of rosy future when the proceeds from the increase will be managed by the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF).”

The PTF was established by the government to invest part of proceeds of the increased fuel price to provide social infrastructure.

“To date, Nigerians are yet to see any improvement in their living conditions, rather, the living conditions have deteriorated. Public utilities have become comatose and social infrastructures have decayed. Also, the price increase has not assured constant fuel supply at the fixed price as promised,” said a statement signed by the group’s executive director, Eze Onyekpere, this week.

Catholic Bishop of Ekiti Diocese, Rev. Michael Fagun, said Nigerians were already suffering from the “maladministration and corrupt practices” of successive governments, and wondered why the government should further punish them by increasing the fuel price.

The Nigeria Labour Congress, which groups civil servants, warned that it would resist any attempt to increase the price of fuel.

Adding his voice to the debate, Nigeria’s ruler, Gen Abubakar, said: “I think the most embarrassing situation we are facing is this lack of fuel and it is very sad that up till now we have not been able to restore the situation to normalcy”.

Long queues of vehicles have continued to be seen in front of filling stations across the country, a phenomenon which has created the illegal sale of fuel in the black market at cut- throat price.

The fuel is sold in the full glare of Nigeria’s dreaded secret police. In the ‘take-or-leave’ deal, a four-litre container that officially sells at 51 US cents now fetches up to 3.63 Dollars, while a 50-litre container costs up to 35.3 Dollars from 6.5 Dollars.

The scarcity also has forced transport fares to triple. For example, a trip between Shomolu and Iganmu, a distance of less than 15 kilometres, now costs 65 US cents instead of 23 cents before the shortage.

“The fuel scarcity experienced under the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s regime was much better than this. At least, one could get fuel even if it was imported by Abacha’s family, the fuel was there. But the situation is now terrible,” says Grace Ademola, a government official who spent about three times the normal fare to get to her office in Lagos this week.

“If it continues, I will stay at home tomorrow, because I don’t have that kind of money to spend on transport,” she told IPS this week.

The Abacha administration resisted pressure by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to increase the price of fuel from the current 13 US cents to 22 cents per litre.

Abacha’s finance minister, Anthony Ani, had argued that the increase would effect Nigeria’s economy.

Abacha, who is Abubakar’s predecessor, died of a heart attack in the Nigerian capital of Abuja in June.