6:48 A.M on a Saturday morning, I heard my phone ring ‘who could it be? This early? What does the person want?’ I thought to myself. Still struggling with sleep, I managed to pick up my phone, Hello, I said, ‘Where did you put your phone, I have been calling you since‘ the person at the other end yelled.
This voice is familiar, I thought, I put on my glasses and looked at my phone’s screen one more time, well, it was indeed a familiar voice; it was my mum’s. ‘Hello ma’, I said again, and then I heard her say quite a number of things, all of which was entering into the left ear and leaving through the right. I managed to pick some points; ‘don’t you dare say you want to on the generator to charge your phone or your laptop, the queues at the filling stations are back, i hope you know they have increased fuel price, we have to start managing the one we have’, she said.
Apparently, she has drawn up, in her head, a timetable of how we will be running the generator at home and can you blame her? There is no stable electricity supply, PENGASSAN is on strike and NNPC, again, increased fuel price!
READ ALSO: Here are the main reason PENGASSAN is on strike
Yesterday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), confirmed the rumor that Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), it’s subsidiary, had increased the ex-depot price of petrol, to N155.17 per litre from N147.67 per litre.
The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at their various depots.
What this speaks to is the fact that marketers would now have to sell the product to motorists and everyday Nigerians within a band of N165 and N173 per litre.
While this is sad and rather unfortunate, it is no longer news. Nigerians from generation to generation, have always witnessed this fuel price hike.
Below is a short history of Nigeria’s fuel price increment under various governments.
- Yakubuu Gowon- 1973: 6k to 8.45k
- Murtala Mohammed- 1976: 8.45k to 9k
- Olusegun Obasanjo – Oct 1,1978: 9k to 15.3k
- Shehu Shagari- Apr 20,1982: 15.3k to 20k
- Ibrahim Babangida-Mar 31, 86: 20k to 39.5k
- Ibrahim Babangida-Apr 10, 1988: 39.5k to 42k
- Ibrahim Babangida-Jan 1, 1989: 42k to 60k (for Private Vehicles)
- Ibrahim Babangida- Mar 6, 1991: 60k to 70k
- Earnest Shonekan (82 days in power)-Nov 8, 1993: 70k to N5
- Sani Abacha- Nov 22, 1993: N5 to N3.25k(price dropped)
- Sani Abacha- Oct 2, 1994: N3.25k to N15
- Sani Abacha- Oct 4, 1994: N15 to N11(price dropped)
- Abdulsalami Abubakar- Dec 20, 1998: N11 toN25
- Abdulsalami Abubakar- Jan 6,1999: N25 to N20 (price dropped)
- Olusegun Obasanjo – June 1, 2000: N20 to N30
- Olusegun Obasanjo- June 8, 2000: N30 to N22 (price drops)
- Olusegun Obasanjo- Jan 1, 2002: N22 to N26
- Olusegun Obasanjo- June, 2003: N26 to N42
- Olusegun Obasanjo- May 29, 2004: N42 to N50
- Olusegun Obasanjo- Aug 25, 2004: N50 to N65
- Olusegun Obasanjo- May 27, 2007: N65 to N75
- Musa Yar’ Adua- June, 2007: back to N65 (price drops)
- Goodluck Jonathan (New year present)- Jan 1, 2012: N141
- Goodluck Jonathan (Labour strike forced him)- Jan 17, 2012: N97
- Goodluck Jonathan (Feb, 2015 when Election approached) N87
- President Muhammadu Buhari increased the price of petrol from N87 to N145 on Wednesday, May 11, 2016.
- March 2020 – Pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) moved from N145 to about N125 per liter.
- In May 2020, Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) announced new pump price band to between N121.50 to N123.50 per litre for petrol.
- In June, the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) reduced petrol price to N121.50 per litre.
- On Wednesday 1 July, 2020 a new PMS pump price band of N140.80 – N143.80 per litre was announced by Nigeria Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency.
- In August 2020, petrol was first increased to N151.56 per litre.
- following the deregulation of petrol prices in September, marketers across the country adjusted their pump prices to between N158 and N162 per litre to reflect the increase in global oil prices.
And now we are back to another increase. Nigerians, have however, as usual taken to the internet to vent and express their dissatisfaction about the most recent increase. See some of their comments:
Implications of the fuel price hike
The anger of the individuals that made the above comment is rather valid. All things being equal, the hike in fuel price is directly proportional to longer sufferings and frustration for Nigerians.
It’s effects are enormous. It will affect all works and spheres of life. Everybody will get a share in the suffering in one way or the other. Well, maybe not, everybody, but a larger percentage of the people.
Put on your sandals, O ye Nigerians and trek your trek’
When motorists pay more for fuel, the transport fare definitely increases, and astronomically too. When you begin to hear the bus drivers yell a triple of the amounts you’d normally pay to board a bus, you might begin to reconsider leaving your house or ask if your destination so far that your feet can’t get you there. Nigerians might end up resuming the journey the Israelites in the bible started.
Increase in prices of basic food commodities
Nigerians already lament the spike in prices of basic food commodities, however, with the recent fuel price increase the country is about to witness a double of same.
Increase in prices of virtually all goods and services
The prices of almost every commodity, as well as, services you can think will, most probably, skyrocket. This is because the increase in fuel price is expected to affect the cost of producing these goods and services.
Inflation
The increase in the fuel price is likely to lead to a rise in inflation. This is because there is a steady increase in prices of commodities and that of services, without a corresponding increase in wages or purchasing power.
Increase in interest rate
Higher inflation may eventually lead to the consideration of increasing interest rates.
The Bottom Line
While we all keep our fingers crossed on the series of event that might follow this increase, you are advised, to draw up a time-table in your head, like my mum has, that will help you manage the manner you consume petrol in your household and to cut the coat of your personal expenses, according to the ‘yards of ankara’ available.
