Fuel scarcity: Life unbearable in Kaduna

The hazy cloud hanging over the ongoing fuel scarcity in the country
for about a month is making life unbearable to Nigerians especially as
the situation is becoming more difficult to the people.
DAILY POST observed in Kaduna and environs that queues appear endless
at the few filling stations where the commodity seems to be available.

Our reporter noticed on Monday that over 80 per cent of vehicles in
the city were queued up in various filling stations waiting for fuel
while commuters
were seen in large number in various parts of the city waiting for
commercial vehicles to convey them to their various offices. Also,
School children who were seen trekking to their various schools.

Where fuel is available, our reporter observed that the machines have
been adjusted with buyers paying more than the official pump price of
87 naira per liter while at the black market, a litre is sold between
250 to 300 naira, depending on who sells the product. Transport
fares have also gone up.

Most residents who spoke with DAILY POST blamed the federal government
for not taking urgent measures to ameliorate the suffering of the
masses, stressing that major oil marketers should immediately be given
the right to import fuel while other loopholes that have impeded free
importation be dealt with without delay.

One Mr. Ike Chukwu called on the federal government to immediately
constitute a committee of men of integrity that would handle the
distribution of fuel to all nook and cranny of the country to bring an
end to the untold hardship caused by the fuel scarcity.

Mrs. Maryam Saleh, a civil servant in Kaduna State called on both the
federal and the state governments to ensure prompt payment of
salaries, pointing out that some civil servants especially in Kaduna
State have stayed for the past five months without being paid.

"It is unfortunate that these people are suffering for reasons beyond
their understanding and worse still, they have to go to their offices
on a daily basis coupled with the present fuel scarcity that is biting
very hard. To every Nigerian that will be sincere to tell the truth,
this is what we did not bargain for when Nigerians were asking for
change of governance in the country," she lamented.

Mr. Julius Bako, a student in Kaduna lamented that since the
commencement of the fuel scarcity, life has not remain the same
especially with their parents. "We are living from hand to mouth,
things have completely changed in our homes especially in the area of
feeding, paying our school fees and other domestic things that our
parents used to do without much problem. Today, we don't understand
what the actual problem is in the country as some of us are finding it
very hard to live," he added.

Mrs. Mary Adamu, a trader in Kaduna who sells foodstuff explained that
since the coming of the present administration in the country and
Kaduna State in particular, civil servants have been affected and by
extension affected the purchasing power. "Some of us stay in our shops
for days before customers patronize our goods, something that is
completely strange to us in the market. With the fuel problem, it has
further compounded the situation," she observed.

She called on the authorities concerned to immediately look into the
problems with a view to tackling them.

Source: http://dailypost.ng/2015/11/30/fuel-scarcity-life-unbearable-in-kaduna/