LAST Sunday March 2, 2014 editorial of The Nation newspapers with title: An Elitist Sermon, is yet another in the growing series of poorly thought out and betrayed emotions that is characterising the media in recent time and one that calls for an urgent transformation if the media is not to lose its historic place of value in Nigeria.

The incident of that piece is further worsened when it is coming from a critical tool of the media which an editorial comment represents, the newspaper’s opinion; this makes the situation at hand more worrisome and needing quick-fix.

Mr. Andrew Yakubu GDM NNPC

Describing the well thought-out and elaborate suggestions of the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu and the Chief Executive of Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, Mr. Haruna Momoh as an elitist sermon can only paint a vivid picture of how ossified the editorial team of this newspaper may have become.

What Messrs Yakubu and Momoh have done so far is exactly what we have failed to see in our public service for a long time and which many Nigerians of good intentions have craved for in such a long time – that public servants should think out of the box and seek solutions to nagging national problems.

Castigating the suggestions made by these two respectable Nigerians that the nation should critically consider liquefied petroleum gas as an alternative to kerosene, only amounts to urging Nigeria to remain stuck to kerosene and the many years of abuse to which the commodity has been subjected to due to its myriad uses. From that editorial, it is ironical that The Nation which has remained critical to the huge amount expended on kerosene subsidy over the years (remember that this newspaper dedicated five days of its editorial comments on this subject last December), would be the one opposed to an alternative to kerosene.

Simply put, the ‘pull him down’ syndrome that has become characteristic of contemporary media practice in the country has eaten so deep that an editorial that is supposed to enlighten readers of the advantages and disadvantages that this suggested option presents, turned out to be an attack on the two men who dared make a difference where others before them have failed. Whatever is the crime in asking Nigerians to switch to an option which the newspaper itself described as safer, cleaner but only opposed to its current cost?

One had expected that what The Nation editorial should seek in that comment would have been on how best to mitigate the cost of the most expensive component of LPG as of today in Nigeria, which is the cylinder. As the editorial pointed out, LPG is fast becoming the cooking fuel of choice in countries where it is in abundant supply like Brazil and Morocco that it rightly identified, so why would Nigeria with an estimated average production capacity of over 3 million Metric Tonnes of LPG per annum fail to explore this ready alternative to kerosene?

Why did The Nation editorial fail to educate its readers, instead of embarking on a vindictive mission on the persons of the leadership of the NNPC and PPMC, that Nigeria with its huge reserve of 187tcf of gas ranks the lowest in per capita LPG consumption standing at a mere 1.1kg among African nations! If this huge wastage does not put any public office holder in the capacity of Messrs Yakubu and Momoh thinking considering the enormous amount the country spend on subsidy for kerosene, then they are not worth occupying those offices.

Consumed by the sentiment that has coloured the thinking of managers of The Nation’s editorial since the sudden outbursts over the bogus claims of missing petroleum funds, the newspaper only ended up insulting the good people of Nigeria when it averred that fear of fire and cost as reasons LPG cannot be a viable substitute to kerosene.

Substitute

to kerosine

That in itself is insult taken too far. At the present cost of kerosene, how many Nigerian families spend less than N2,000 per month for their cooking and what difference in margin would that be even with the current price of a 12kilogram of LPG which sells for N3,200 for the same period for kerosene that is heavily subsidised and LPG without subsidy? Considering the critical roles of supply and demand, the more Nigerians use LPG, chances are that even without subsidising the commodity, its cost is most likely to drop sharply. What papers like The Nation should canvas is a way by which government at all levels and politicians should muster the political will to make the necessary sacrifices that will bring Nigeria to where it rightfully belongs in adopting LPG as cooking fuel.

If citizens of Morocco, Brazil, Indonesia and Ghana can use LPG and they have not all been consumed by fire, the suggestion that fire incident is a good reason for staying hooked unto kerosene is a hog-wash that must not be tolerated by Nigerians.

If the editorial team of The Nation must know, by 2012 alone, the consumption of LPG increased in the country by almost 36.8 per cent within one year from 125,000MT to 171,000MT and the figure for 2013 shows that more than 250,000MT was consumed. These figures clearly indicate that consumption of cooking gas (LPG) in Nigeria has more than doubled its demand five years ago. Therefore, there could not have been a more pragmatic solution to the present wasteful insistence on kerosene than the suggestion for LPG made by the headship of NNPC and PPMC before the House of Representative Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), recently.

As the newspaper pointed out itself, “The fact is that deliberate government policies account significantly for the much progress made in countries like Brazil and Morocco, where LPG consumption is high”; the only impediment to this transition is only government to muster the necessary political will for change.

Except if as a nation, we have concluded that our government at all levels are incapable of mustering this much needed political will to effect change, otherwise if the countries identified above have achieved between 54 million population usage (Indonesia) and 56 million population usage (Brazil), why would it be impossible for Nigeria to achieve?

Only cynic opinions such as canvassed by The Nation editorial will make it an uphill task to make the sacrifices that could bring about such changes, that is if we really desire it. If and when editorials become critically objective, proffering workable and better alternatives without recourse to abusing the sensibilities of Nigerians because it wields the power of the pen, then we are nearer to solving our common national problems.  Let The Nation editorial team think up a better option otherwise, the way to go is what has been canvassed by those two gentlemen.

•Sehinde Omoniyi, a media professional writes from Abuja