Nigeria’s finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has blamed the
ongoing fuel crisis on “disruption of pipelines and logistical issues”,
apparently invalidating earlier reasons given by the government agency
responsible for pricing and regulation of petroleum products.
The minister also contradicted the ruling Peoples Democratic Party,
which accused the opposition All Progressives Congress of compelling
marketers to either divert or refuse to sell petrol to embarrass the
government.
At a news briefing Tuesday, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala strongly denied any
link between the scarcity that has left long queues at filling stations
across the country, and a failure by the government to pay fuel
marketers — a reason given by the Petroleum Products Pricing and
Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.
“I want to emphasize that contrary to some unfounded speculations,
the queues are not caused by payment issues,” Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said.
With the scarcity in its seventh day, relevant federal agencies
appear either unable to ascertain the actual cause of the crisis yet, or
deliberately attempting to distort information released to the public.
Depending on the government organ speaking, the cause of the scarcity
has ranged from government’s indebtedness to fuel marketers, pipeline
vandalism to sabotage by the opposition APC.
The APC blames the government’s refusal to pay marketers and corruption.
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