It’s no surprise to see long queues at filling stations in Nigeria especially around this time. Ironically, Nigeria is the number one oil producer in Africa. The fuel scarcity always occurs during Christmas-New Year celebrations and the reason is beyond common sense.
It seems like that oil importers and marketers are in a secret pact to inflict hardship on and mar the celebration of Nigerians at this time every year. The dark cloud over the Christmas celebration started with a planned strike by the oil union, which led to panic buying and hoarding before it was cancelled after pleading and negotiation with the government.
But the expected respite turned out to be just another mirage as long queues surfaced in most parts of the country with black market fuel sellers exploiting the situation. The situation motorists forced to buy petrol for between N250 and N300 per litre from the original price of N145.
In a country where workers are owed several months salaries, it will be a gloomy and dull Christmas celebration in many households.
