Perhaps it is the unfolding and increasingly interesting drama in Etiki that has taken the attention of public discourse away from the current fuel scarcity in the country. Or is it that amongst many other anomalies of our system, we’ve collectively become use to long queues at filling stations that their presence now doesn’t raise the hair on our skin. Which ever, it is important to tell it to the world here that this particular episode of scarcity seems to be getting out of hand.
It is nearing a month now since the queues began to appear. Initially it was described as panic buying. Car owners on hearing of rumours of impending strike by fuel tanker drivers had stormed filling stations to fill up their tanks. Whether indeed the drivers are on strike or not, I don’t now know and indeed I am not interested in knowing. What I am bothered about is that our government has shown out right inability to respond to the situation and save Nigerians the trouble.
The hardships we now live with as a consequence of the scarcity are better imagined. Transport fares have tripled. The drivers say they not only spend hours on the queue, they also often have to give bribes to get fuel. The drivers are now gods. Pay or remain there. The cost of food stuffs have followed suit. That’s the pattern in Nigeria. What is more?, most civil servants are yet to receive their pay due to the hitches associated with the e-payment. Walk around and you will feel the people’s pain. You can almost put a hand to it.
The fuel queues themselves are a sight to behold. Faces of the people you see on the drivers’ seat speak volumes. Frustration. Despair. Desolation. Among the people on these queues are workers who have abandoned official business in search of fuel. The hot sun over head doesn’t help matters. The queues haven’t just taken up a lane on the roads, causing annoying traffic hold ups; they have formed into wonderful shapes. You would see ‘L’ shapes, crescents, spirals, zig zags, parallel lines, and some classical widening gyres.
The neigbourhood are now quieter ‘cos the noisy generators can’t run. The nights are now so dark. Criminals are having a field day. Children have no light to read and do their home works. Mothers battle with their rotting food stuffs in the fridge. The television doesn’t sing the Yar’Adua seven point agenda song. Seven points of failure.
And the trouble is spreading. The news papers reported yesterday that there was now scarcity of aviation fuel. Soon flight fares will increase in addition to the troubles of delayed or cancelled flights. For a nation that said it is re-branding, our brand statement to the rest of the world can best be imagined. Nigeria; Good People, Bad Governement.
Sylva Nze Ifedigbo
www.nzesylva.wordpress.com
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