LASG vs Tanker Drivers

I am almost certain that all Nigerians are now aware that there is a fuel crisis going on in the country. While for many years, especially for those in the north and east, fuel queues have always sprung up here and there, lasting for a few days, but never really getting out of hand, the current one, by all indications, is looking like it might end up as a mega crisis.

But how have we got ourselves here? The story in the media is that the cause of the current crisis is firstly as a result of importers and the NNPC to import fuel, due to a lack of clarity on the deregulation policy, and secondly due to the protracted issue between the Lagos State Government and tanker drivers over parking on the highways and the like.

I would like to focus on the second reason. The standoff between LASG and tanker drivers dates back many years. We have all been witnesses to the menace the tankers cause on our roads. Regular motorists on Lagos -Ibadan expressway will know what i'm talking about, as well as those who frequent the Apapa area. Even in Ibadan, at Ojo area, many a motorist has met his untimely death by crashing into one tanker or the other. But are the drivers at fault? My answer to this is yes and no. I say yes because every learned Nigeria should know that the highways are not parking areas and were never designed to be. Unfortunately, I doubt the average tanker driver is very learned!! And no, because the governments irresponsibility and incompetence (both state and federal) have led to this in the first place. First of all if our refineries were working, and we had built more by now, we probably wouldn't need as many tanker drivers and their hold on the product supply would be much less. Secondly, if we had a working pipeline system, we would need much fewer tankers and the distribution system would be more efficient. Thirdly, if the government had nipped this millitancy in the bud early enough, we would not have any issues with our pipeline network.

Unfortunate as it may be, we have handed power to the tanker drivers who now cannot be controlled, cannot be spoken to and to whom traffic laws no longer seem to apply, even it it causes misery for other road users.

If we had been brave enough to deregulate the downstream sector years ago, I doubt we would be in this mess today. By now there would have been more modern discharge facilities in other ports, thereby ensuring that not all produce comes in through Lagos. Also, if it were found to be cheaper, the railways may have become a more preferred mode of transport to the hinterland as opposed to the current system of trucking (how much fuel can one truck carry for goodness sake?) and perhaps that would have provided some impetus for the mordernisation or complete privatisation of the railway by now.

The current crisis is already among us, but what we must do is to ensure that it doesn't happen again. The solutions are available, but only to the creative, learned and proactive. Do we have such in government? Hopefully!!