The recent increase in the price of kerosene has generated a lot reactions from Nigerians, this increment being the highest so far in the history of the product in the country. The price went from N450 per gallon to an outrageous N1400 within a period of two weeks, amounting to 300 per cent increment on the product.
Studies have shown that over nine million (9,000,000) litres of kerosene is being used daily by Nigerians, mainly for household purposes. Being an oil -producing country, Nigeria is supposed to have Kerosene in abundance. But the reverse is the case, as the price of kerosene has not been stable in the recent past. Many marketers have been hiding under the guise of scarcity to sell at outrageous price, in order to make mouth-watering profit , while tankers drivers divert the product and sell to roadside surface dealers. These are some of the reasons why kerosene is hardly available at fuel stations across the country.
If marketers are not hoarding the product, they sell at higher prices, and this has added to the suffering of the masses. It is pathetic that many households now resort to the use of charcoal, firewood and sawdust for domestic cooking. One wonders why and what could have culminated in this outrageous increase in the price of this essential commodity.
However, the question on the lips of the masses is, what is President Goodluck Jonathan doing about this, and what has he to offer us as dividends of democracy?
Could the increment be as a result of political dispensation that has just come to an end, with emergence of new administrators that are not used to the system or due to sabotage?
It is sad that while the government is trying its best to make life meaningful for the masses, some cabal at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) are doing their best in compounding the problems of Nigerians by refusing to release kerosene to the prospective marketers.
Oke Peter Olatunde,
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Tags: Product Studies
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