The biting fuel scarcity may have forced the Federal Government to eat the humble pie on it suspension of subsidy payments to fuel importers. Under pressure to end the festering scarcity, the government has spoken of plans to involve members of the Major Oil Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) in the importation of refined petroleum products this quarter.
The government, through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe-Kachikwu, announced the suspension in January, a development that made fuel importation unattractive to marketers. But, the ‘laudable’ decision turned costly for the government as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which assumed the sole importation of petrol could not meet the consumption demand.
