 We head straight to our first major conversation and we're looking at the continuous furrow of scarcity and the fact that the queues have actually returned. Now most interesting is the fact that you have the black market operators making a lot. So yes the black market petrol is booming in most parts of the country as the scarcity of the product persists amid the promise of the Nigerian national petroleum company NMPC that said that it started the week with the assurance in Nigerians that the distribution of premium motor spirit that's the PMS would soon be normalized and the NMPC had promised additional 2.3 billion litres to the existing 1 billion liter to address the issue of scarcity. Now scarcity of petrol like we earlier mentioned is there despite the government's promise that petrol will be all over the petrol scarcity would be over but this continues in different parts of the country. Now on the other hand you have the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Nupeng directed its members to start compiling names of marketers hoarding premium motor spirit that's the PMS and also selling above official depot price. Meanwhile you also have fuel scarcity faced by countries that might just there's also another report saying that the fuel scarcity we're faced within the country might just be prolonged because the vessels that brings refined products into the country around the Ukraine and Russia are likely to face delay following all of the crisis that's happening in Russia and Ukraine. Now to make sense of all of this to understand why we still have the scarcity of the products and why we still have a people not selling this product at this chip elated price of 165 naira per liter and why there's so much business for the black marketers as what we're looking at this morning joining us is Mr. Douglas Ike who is the chairman of Ipman the Bini depot. I'm hoping that we're able to be connected with Mr. Douglas and we hope that he can give us because he's part of the value chain and maybe he has an idea as regards what's going on because at this point in time no minister how no information whatsoever statement from the Minister of Petroleum Resources. Now prior to this time we also need to remember the fact that Nigerians had complained there's been a lot of complain about the importation of adulterated petrol into the country that cost a lot of peasants but if you live in Lagos and other parts of the country you want to attest to the fact that you know the queues have actually returned and this has also increased the fare of transportation and the traffic in Lagos is unusual I mean coupled with the fact that the traffic is usually very very high and intense it's a lot to actually go through with at this point in time some people say it's such a difficult time to be an Nigerian but we're hoping that do we have Mr. Douglas Ike? Yes we have Douglas Ike chairman of Ipman Bini depot. Good morning to you Mr. Douglas E.E.K. are you there please? Mr. Douglas is good to have you join us. Okay so like we have really mentioned can you please tell us the same to be or the risk fuel scarcity across some parts of the country and some people say that depot owners are saying that they had actually paid for this product but up until this moment they have not received the consignment and that's on the one hand some people are also saying that you know you have the black market operators actually booming in the midst of this scarcity you still have the long queues and you also have some fueling station selling above the actual pump price so this is a lot to understand and we we can't really phantom what is going on despite the fact that NNPC had mentioned that that we're going to make this product available we're looking at 2.3 billion litres of petrol. Can you quickly tell us what you know about the scarcity of petrol in Nigeria? Thank you very much for all this and I like to slightly say that the depot owners are saying that they have paid for their consignment based on that you know the truth of the matter is that the black market is taking the fueling season based on the on that you said the petrol that was sold to this country and so what I mean about this when I stop off to stop off to a standard yeah so the truth of the matter is this is your safety case in the past very soon because the NNPC have assured that the billions of people that will come into the world that will come into the world. For me, I mean not about Australia and Australia very much. So we think about our country's own product. So let me tell you, let me tell you that in the United States here, in the United States I think it's good to say that the people it's good to say that the United States will be very productive in the United States. If you don't trust the United States, yes. But if you don't trust the United States, you don't trust the United States. That's all there is to it. So let me tell you about the United States. Mr. Douglas, we have to let you go now. We seem to have a poor connection. Mr. Douglas, if you can hear us we're having a poor connection. We can barely hear you. We're straining to hear you right now and we're hoping that we're able to you know resolve that maybe from your end or our end and we'll have that connection. Should I get that team? Yes please. But you know the crux of the conversation is that you know you have the scarcity that's still ongoing and you can see that because of the queues. So you pass through some fueling stations. I mean fuel station in Lagos, you still find that there are queues. Some stations are not selling. Well you find people, motorists you know curing and waiting and that's also causing the traffic but we're not even talking about the traffic because we're talking about the fact that the product is not there. If you look at the roads now and you you can't find the buses. As a yesterday there were no buses and these buses would actually commute persons from one spot to the other and so mostly you find all of this private vehicles. The question is if the federal government yes we understand that there was an importation of adult traded product which cost a lot and the government said we're going to cushion all of this. We're going to import you know 2.3 billion. I remember that and this week as well NMPC also started by assuring Nigerians that all of this was going to be a matter of the past and that's what the NMPC said. Assuring Nigerians also in this week but we're still here talking about the issue of fuel scarcity. Now in the midst of this fuel scarcity you also find that the black market is also blow-solving. They are making a lot. How do they even get this product even when others can't get it because they get it and then they sell it you know at a very exorbitant price. That's a very good question. So where's the problem? We also have another excuse saying because of the crisis that's going on in Russia and Ukraine this is all going to affect the availability of the product because the ship that would actually bring the refined product into Niger around this country might just face all of this delay because of the conflict and the situation around you know this country. So I really don't know but some people say that Nigerian might just be taking advantage of the situation. As always it's a blame game and it brings us back to the fact that why are we experiencing this? Why are we also having people buying above the actual price? Could it be also the issue of subsidy being removed? Where exactly is going on? You know and for me I really don't know. Maybe we have heard from you know the minister. We really don't know categorically what's going on. Maybe Kofi you have an idea. Yes indeed it's really sad that the the petrol scarcity situation is lingering as we speak. It's getting worse. It's getting worse. Let's let's not miss words. It's getting worse. And of course we have you know more people on the queues spending longer hours so it's indeed getting worse. The taxi driver who brought me to work this morning had to ask him how he's coping and what he said to me was that I may have to go on the queue as early as 3 a.m you know. I saw a long queue. We're in Lagos on the Walla Wall Road which has about three four or five petrol stations. People are queuing overnight. They're not sleeping at home just to fill their tanks which is going to get finished and they have to go back. So they queue overnight and wait till about 6 a.m for the petrol stations to open and then the queue starts moving. So if you don't go there at night to park your vehicle maybe 8 p.m or whenever at night when they stop selling you stay there till the next day you will be you know how petrol. So you have to go there overnight. Another complaint he had was that you know some of the petrol stations they're used to selling from 6 a.m and but that they've stopped selling from 6 a.m they're selling from 8 a.m. So it means that even though you stay there from from from 8 p.m you have to stay 12 hours to 8 a.m that's 8 in the morning before you can get filled. So it's just getting worse. We've had a plethora of promises from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited led by Millicare. We've had a plethora of promises from the federal government you know with the Minnesota State for Petroleum Resources to repress Silver speaking. We've heard from the presidency you know the president was said to have queried the NMDP array which is a regulatory body and then later we heard that no he actually did inquiry them. Whilst we're having for instance now daily updates from the federal ministry of foreign affairs as regards the situation of Nigerians in Ukraine the ministry of petroleum resources is neither the ministry of petroleum ministries or the NNPC Limited or even the NMDP array have thought it wise to give Nigerians daily updates on this national crisis. Nobody has come to the press to say every day we're giving you updates on how we're doing. They're not giving us any information. Rather we see Millicare on the front pages of national dailies posing for pictures with Arabian you know what do you call it again Arabian oil officials and talking about an energy summit in Abuja. What energy summit in Abuja are you talking about when in Nigerians don't have petrol you are you organizing an energy summit. So so these guys have have insulted Nigerians multiple times you know disrespected Nigerians multiple times told Nigerians they don't matter you don't care about you multiple times throughout this. Millicare you have petrol you go to work every day all right Timmy Presidiova you have petrol you go to work every day. President Buhari you have petrol you go to work every day your families have petrol you're not you seem not to be concerned about what Nigerians are going through every single day on the streets. Has the president Buhari gone on the streets to see what Nigerians are going through? Has he visited any petrol station? In the middle of this the president hopped on the plane to Belgium in the middle of this what did you go to Belgium to say Mr President and he came back to tell us that Nigeria is going to produce COVID-19 vaccines when Nigerians are dealing with an excruciating petrol scarcity that's getting worse. Nigeria is talking about conditions for the oil and gas companies or the IOC's national companies to leave they're leaving they're leaving that these companies are leaving means that you guys have failed to manage the nations oil and gas sector properly and that's why these guys are leaving these guys come with investment they come with technology they come with know-how they come with employment and they're leaving they're going to pack up their bags and leave a lot of Nigerian lives have been bettered by this so what are we talking about here that is a red flag by now the alarm bell should be ringing and these guys seem not to care you know it's really unfortunate and as far as it seems as far as it seems it's like do we have I think maybe we probably have Mr Douglas E.K. back on the line but not not that I mean I can actually relate it's not a joke right it is really not a joke because reading through and following the report there are some quarters I mean if you look at one of the states I think in Gombe state you find the fact that the black markets are selling for 300 Naira per liter and that's a lot if you look at the actual price of 165 and the question here is if if this product is really scarce and people have to queue how do these persons have access to this product and then sell at this rate and because Nigerians would always be desperate and because we would always want to you know just survive we would go the extra length you know to buy and pay and in that report you find that the government saying the federal government or the government saying they're not in the know they don't know the sufferings the Nigerians are going through and I'm asking if like you have mentioned you know those responsible Mali Akari you have talked about the president it just totally shows us the disconnects the people who we elect every other time whether or not we elected them or they found their way to the system and do not even care about the people seem to have a disconnect it's a major issue and we understand that for every time you have failed scarcity we just got into the thought I mean this is like the third one in the first quarter of 2023 and there's a lot to deal with there's a lot to grapple with I mean several businesses have actually shut down because of insecurity issues in the country and now go go to the street and find out how much the cost of transportation it has gone up and you can't necessarily blame them so you have this depot owner we're hoping that we have this conversation the depot owners are saying that on one hand that they have paid for products that's a serious allegation that nmpc needs to explain if they're saying that they have paid for some of this product since December and we're talking about the first day in March they haven't gotten the product what is going on now we have the fact that when did this Russian and Ukraine crisis started we're saying that all this you know fuel scarcity might just prolong the annoying thing is Nigerians have money but they can't even find the products and so even with your money you can't even buy at a very high rate the fact that petrol has been sold for 200, 165, 180, 170, 190 and we constantly hear those who should regulate ensure that people I mean these importers or those who are selling sell at this cheap elated rate and they keep saying oh we're giving sanctions we have given demands and all of these things seem to be in the papers nobody's doing anything and he constantly just shows us that we we don't care about the people we don't really we're not even concerned go to the roads and see how many persons because what we're talking about is an economy that needs to be productive the productive hours have been reduced every day in traffic what you expect when people have difficulties getting to work and getting back to their homes and getting back again to work so it becomes very very you know cumbersome and I'm hoping that you know those in this sector that from the ministry of petroleum resources the president who is in charge and every other person Malik Kary and every other person would explain to Nigerians what is really going on in the petroleum sector with the scarcity of this product I mean how come the product is not available for a country that exports crude we're part of the you know producing nation and then we have a quota that was supposed to produce unfortunately we have to export our product and import it back and have to buy it doesn't even really make sense that's another thing and now we don't even have enough for the people to consume absolutely messy it's um it's it's a bad situation you know it's a bad situation you've said it all and one only hopes that it'll get better definitely well that's the much we can take at this point in time hopefully we have this conversation maybe tomorrow when we're able to have our resources and join us thank you so much for being part of the conversation when we return we head straight to our second conversation all things being equal please stay with us