Energy business in the oil and gas sector, from all indications, has proven in the recent past to be the major driver and determinant of the trending market forces on the pricing profile of virtually all known mercantile goods and services within the economy. The cost of energy significantly influences all other economic activities because it is established that energy is the fuel for consumption (be it of fossil origin or renewable). This ultimately drives prosperity and economic sustainability in human daily activities. This singular fact has been the root cause of the current major national challenge that brought about acute hunger in the land, culminating into a general economic hardship every citizen in the country has been experiencing. Not only that food crisis manifested through significant reduction of agricultural activities of small holder farmers in all communities due to fear of losing their lives in the hands of bandits, or being raped, kidnapped and killed in their own farmlands by terrorists. This identified national security challenge has also resulted in food insecurity because the generality of the citizenry (the poor masses, especially) have been sorely subjected to and thrown into abject poverty, since their disposable incomes could no longer afford any purchased item in the market due to ever rising inflation; nor could they adequately square up their bargaining power with the ever skyrocketing cost of food items.
No doubt, the hyperinflation the economy is facing obviously has a historical link with the petrol subsidy pronouncement made by President Tinubu on 29th May, 2023. Appreciating the fact from the lucid analysis made already on the significant impact energy business has on the national economy, things instantly went haywire immediately the petrol subsidy removal became an open secret, officially in the country. This made the petrol subsidy removal to become the major national economic Tsunami. The citizenry has not known economic peace, from the moment the pump price of PMS started galloping from N197 per litre to N670, and currently around N970 per litre. This fuel or energy challenge (in general) in the country has created high cost of living and unimaginable, shameful all-time high inflation, which most Nigerians are not able to cope with as they have been thrown into deeper poverty by loss of time, capital, disposable income, and bargaining power on virtually all commodities in the open market. It is indeed an embarrassing situation for a country that is the sixth world’s largest producer of crude oil, but which cannot refine her own petroleum products for daily domestic needs; even to simply attain self-sufficiency status for the sake of the economy. An economy that has the finest blend of crude (Brent), notable for its low sulphur content is seen grappling with issues on refined products for domestic consumption.
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Now, the price of a 12.5 kg liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used for cooking has risen to N17,000! Where is the country headed with this? Not too long ago, this was a product whose price hovered between N3,500 and N4,000 before rising gradually to N7,000, then N8,500, and then N10,500. Cooking gas is an energy product that is universally consumed (mostly for domestic uses) for cooking by households, hoteliers, petty traders that run their daily food vendor deals by road sides, mechanic workshops, buckers and makeshift food stands in various markets. The common man in the streets of Nigeria, the artisan, who buys food at buckers at N300 or N350 per plate, before this latest LPG price increment, now buys food at N1,000 to N1,200 per plate. What does the government want the people (vulnerable Nigerians who don’t have hope on how else to improve their sources of income or livelihood) to do? This is a situation that is directly encouraging insecurity in the land, where moral values are thrown to the winds, with criminal thoughts/tendencies becoming rampant among hungry Nigerians. This precarious situation is indeed becoming more and more dangerous because the masses have been pushed to the wall; and their reactions (the social upheaval) could be violently disastrous unless the government wade in immediately to control rising energy costs in the land.
I most sincerely do not want to talk about the NNPCL again in this country. The level of corruption (this moral virus) in the land, through energy business, is stinking! Why can’t the few government refineries (especially those that the NNPCL went to Afreximbank and borrowed some billion dollars a few years ago) work, at this time? This vile disease is continuously sucking the economic health of this country with an evil moral infection that keeps the economy in a state of perpetual illness. This lethargic, moral virus thrives along with poverty in our energy and petroleum sector, while the nation’s economic prosperity is obviously put in a disadvantageous position. The NNPCL leadership should at this time be sensitive enough to feel the economic pulse of the nation and the cries of the vulnerable masses of this country.
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