By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
The persistent scarcity of the Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) otherwise called petrol and continued power outage in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ensured that the International Workers Day celebrations were near absent in Abuja on May 1.
Prompt News reports that residents of FCT are spending the Workers Day holiday queuing up to buy petrol at few filling stations that are dispensing the products amidst pump price hikes just as others chose to stay away from attending the organised labour planned rallies.
As has been the case for the second week running, most petrol retail stations in FCT are still without products especially the mega stations belonging to A.A. Rano; NIPPCO and AFDIN filling stations located long the ever-busy Umaru Yar’Adua Expressway known as Airport Road, Abuja.
The situation was the same at petrol stations in the satellite towns and Area Councils of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Bwari, Abaji, Kwali and Kuje as long queues persist at the few petrol stations that are dispensing petrol.
For example, motorists, commuters and other road users are finding it difficult to pass through the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) mega stations in the metropolis especially the retail outlet located near the GSM Village in Garki, Abuja.
A resident, Chief Anthony Igwe who was at the NNPCL retail outlet at Area 1, Garki lamented that the petrol scarcity is coming at a time when Nigerian workers are being squeezed by rising inflation amidst stagnant wages, resulting in one of the worst cost-of-living crises in the Nigeria’s history.
According to him Nigeria workers have had it so rough under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration and it is unfortunate that while the living conditions of the Nigerian worker remain at a miserably low ebb, the federal government continues to behave as if everything is fine with the economy.
Said he: “the Nigerian government continues to regale its international audiences with stories of how the masses are going to enjoy life courtesy of the new economic policies of the Tinubu administration in the face of the excruciating economic hardship”.
Alhaji Ibrahim Usman, an Abuja resident who said he spent several hours on Tuesday without buying petrol at a petrol retail outlet at Apo District lamented the absence of federal government petrol products regulatory authorities, arguing that despite the hike in pump prices most of the filling stations are dispensing below the standard measurements of the product.
“It’s unfortunate that since President Tinubu announced that fuel subsidy is gone a year ago with the attendant price hikes and scarcity yet retail stations are not pumping accurate quantity of products. READ ALSO:
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“I have observed that the volume of products these filling stations are dispensing fall short of the measurement but we no longer have the regulatory agencies check the under hand tactics of these retailers”, Usman said.
For Otunba Olayinka Alabi, the fuel scarcity has been made worse by the incessant power outage in Abuja as witnessed since the federal government increased electricity tariffs, a situation he said has made life unbearable for common Nigerians.
Said he: average Nigerian is suffering too much as the rising energy cost, be it fuel or electricity is suffocating Nigerians and there are no signs that the Tinubu administration has solutions for our problems. I have not seen any sign that all the economic policies this government has introduced is working. This is not how we are going to continue till 2027″.
