BY EROMONSELE IMAFIDON

THE mixed reactions that had trailed the statement by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, to the effect that the current fuel scarcity would end in May, offer an opportunity for constructive introspection.

It is so considering the critical nature of the issue and the far-reaching effects in the system.

Understandably, the assertion which could perhaps pass for sideline comments begot emotion and sentimental response. While the merit of the outrage, from various divides, is somewhat contentious, it comes gratifying that the nation has been taken out of the dark regarding the dialectics of the problem.

At least, it was a clear departure from the norm of systemic denial, which is responsible for the failure of governance in the country. Without bias to the pains that trailed the hard truth, most of us in the oil sector consider the massage an opportunity to commence confronting the bottlenecks. That it offers the traction needed to comprehend the anguish unleashed on Nigerians, by the shortage does not hyperbolical.

My thinking also finds corroboration in the words of Dapo Abiodun, the Managing Director, Heyden Oil and Gas and Chairman, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, who said the minister was clearly misunderstood.

He said: ‘’Basically, what the minister was trying to explain was that when he said the issue of supply of petroleum products will linger for a bit, he didn’t mean that what you see today will linger for a very long time. He was referring to a point when the problem will be resolved in the entire country, in every nook and cranny of the nation. This means that from Lagos to Port Harcourt, to Maiduguri and just resolving them in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Kaduna only but for the problem to be resolved in every village where there is a filling station.

‘’ That was what he was referring to, but you will find out that over the next two week, about 80-90% of these problems will be solved. The reasons for what you see presently are very simple; there is what we call the summer and winter months in petroleum template. The government also has tried to shift from what obtained in the past to something that identifies with the change that the president promised us, which is predicated on prudence.’’

In view of this, it was not surprising that the minister did not deviate from the aforementioned realities while taking questions from the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream) that had summoned him.

Apparently aware of sentiments that was provoked by his statement he offered apologies and as well said to the satisfaction of Nigerians that fuel scarcity would end in April.

He said: “I share the pains of Nigerians, I feel that pain everyday when I walk the streets: on Easter day, I was in Lagos monitoring fuel distribution and the depots, I had given 24 hours attention to the problems. I have continued to work with one sole purpose, which is that every problem must have a solution and I think that is the reason I was picked.

“I do apologise for the comment that I made jocularly with my friends in the press about being a magician and it offended Nigerians; it was not meant to be, it was a side jocular issue. I did go on to explain what needed to be done, I did not know that it would create the kind of hyperbole (exaggeration) that it did. “Let me first admit that I am not a typically experienced politician, I am a technocrat: I come to work.

“Some of the phraseologies that I may use, while being acceptable in the arena in which I play, obviously will not be acceptable in the public political arena. So, if any body’s sensibilities were offended by those, I totally apologise.”

In addition, he added that: ‘’Refineries in Nigeria are old and dilapidated but with appropriate funds and retooling, they will be revived to full capacity. It is one of the solutions to the problem at hand,” he noted.

He proffered another solution thus: “The ultimate solution is the computerisation of the structure where every product that goes into the depots is tracked when it is loaded, it is tracked when it gets to the filling station, and then vehicles in this country must carry scanners and trackers. Once you do that, it will record where a truck landed ultimately and we are working on those solutions.

“We have finished the first, where we can track our products from the depots in Lagos into the depots in states. What we have left not done is begin to track from the depots straight into the filling stations and we are working on that and hopefully, in the next couple of months, we should get to that point and once you do that, then you can actually leave a very serious sanctions on those who are actually getting themselves involved in diverting products.

“Most fuel products come into Nigeria from Europe and it takes 14 days for fuel to land here,” he said, adding that the government intended to solve the situation by engaging consultants to manage the depots across the country.

In all, the latest outing was no just tied to the current fuel scarcity, it proffered the need workable solutions on the matter.

*Imafidon is a Lagos based  oil and gas expert.