Month: May 2024

Nigerians on Tuesday, April 30 queued for hours to buy fuel across major cities as the West African nation struggled with its latest fuel shortage, causing more hardship for millions already struggling in an economic crisis.

The fuel shortage has led to an increase in transportation costs in the country where many people rely on public transportation. Authorities blamed the shortage on supply disruptions due to logistical challenges. Queues leading to gas stations stretched up to 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) in some cities including the national capital, Abuja.

Nigeria is one of Africa’s top crude oil producers, but gasoline shortages are commonplace, mostly as a result of frequent strikes and supply disruptions. As on previous occasions, Nigeria’s state oil firm accused fuel companies of exploiting the current situation to maximize profit.

Supply disruptions and exploitation

Nigeria relies heavily on imported fuel due to underperforming refineries. The biggest refinery in Africa opened recently in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, and is expected to boost refining capacity. However, the privately owned facility still produces only diesel and aviation fuel.

The cost of fuel in many gas stations in Abuja has already jumped by more than 15% from the usual 675 naira (50 cents) per liter. Prices varied in other cities around the country.

The fuel crisis causes difficulties for the many businesses that run on generators because of Nigeria’s chronically erratic power supply, which has worsened in recent weeks.

Traffic jams and frustration

In some parts of Abuja and Lagos, half the roads were filled with traffic jams of private car owners and taxi drivers, including some who had parked near gas stations overnight to buy fuel early.

“I haven’t done anything today since morning because how do you want to work when there is no fuel?” Abuja taxi driver Farouk Ibrahim asked. A father of two, Ibrahim said his greatest concern is finding money to return home with for the family’s next day’s meal.

“No fuel, no light, even to eat is a problem,” he said from a fuel queue in Abuja’s Garki district.

In commemoration of May day, the Nigerian government has announced the approval of a 25 percent and 35 percent salary increase for some categories of workers in the country.

A statement signed on Tuesday by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) said the increases included government workers in the education, health and security sectors.

The increase was back-dated to January 2024, and the lowest-paid government employee will earn 450,000 naira ($323.97) a year or 37,500 monthly, according to the NSIWC’s statement.

Nigeria’s labour unions have been agitating for an increase in wages and salaries since last year when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu effected the removal of subsidies on petrol upon his assumption of office.

Since then inflation in Africa’s most populous nation has skyrocketed, reaching nearly 35 per cent in March, the highest in three decades. Additionally, the value of the Naira the country’s currency has plummetted against the dollar, losing 60 per cent, thereby worsening the cost of living crisis.

Many Nigerians groan under the harsh economic situation and lament that their take-home pay is not in tune with today’s reality and must be substantially increased.

Yet the news of the May Day increase in the salary of civil servants is being met with mixed reactions in the West African nation. Some labour unions say what was more important was a general increase in the country’s minimum wage.

“These categories of workers are already in the privileged sector but we expect it to be extended also to other categories of civil servants who are in lower cadre and are vulnerable,“ the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) spokesman Comrade Benson Upah told local media.