Families groan as kerosene hits N220 – N300 per litre

While residents of Lagos state are lamenting the seeming unstoppable rise in the price of kerosene as the product hits the N220 per liter mark early in the week, their counterparts in Delta state are groaning as black marketers have hiked the commodity to a record N300 and 350 per litre.

Reports reaching us from our correspondents nationwide state that average families that solely depend on kerosene for domestic energy are the most hit as the alternative source of energy – firewood, has also soared out of reach of many.
Edokpolor Osayande reports that a thoroughly vexed resident in Gbagada, Mrs. Ogbemudia Roseline said she is fed up, tired and frustrated because of scarcity and high cost of kerosene.  “Somebody please help me calculate it: how can I buy four liters of kerosene for N900 and it will last for only three days?
“I couldn’t cope with the situation anymore, so I decided to change to gas, only to find that the cost of gas has also been increased. I am perplexed,” she lamented.

Chimerije Jonathan, also a resident here, said “I am truly sad about the current increase in kerosene as I sometimes go hungry because I cannot afford the cost. Most times I depend on NEPA to cook my food with electric stove, but unfortunately, they don’t give light for many days. We the masses are suffering; I wonder what will happen to people like me in a few months if government don’t treat this as emergency.”

A perplexed housewife, Patience Bassey, a resident of Bariga area of Lagos, told our correspondent, “I cannot imagine a litre of  kerosene  selling for N220 and our government say they are fighting corruption. See how the price of every commodity has skyrocketed.
“How does government want the common family like mine to survive?”

Delta State

Residents in the Local Government town of Obiaruku in Ukwani Local Government Area say their experience is nothing short of a nightmare.

Elder and retired business man, Mr. Sunday Ozhim of Ghana Quarters in a telephone chat with The Daily Timesconfirmed they are facing untold hardship.

“The filling stations here are selling one litre of kerosene between N160 and N180; but because the stations don’t have it to sell, ordinary retailers who buy from God knows where sell the commodity at between N250 and N300 per litre.

“And the price is escalating almost every day; the price I quoted is as of few days; by the time you go back, the price will not be the same again. Everyone is at the mercy of the black marketers because of the scarcity.”

Confirming the suspicion that the kerosene being sold to members of the public is lighter and suspected to be aviation fuel, Ozhim said there is no doubt that what is sold to the public is not kerosene but something else.

“When we buy five litres before, it used to carry us for five days; but now, it does not go beyond just three days. It is burning so fast that it cannot be kerosene.”

So how are the people taking it?

“Well, those who have been priced out of reach of kerosene resort to firewood, and this has also shot the cost of firewood up.

 “The bottom line is that there is not much anybody can do in this circumstance; everywhere you see people just grumbling, but they all continue to weather the situation because we don’t have a choice, and life must go on,” Ozhim said.

A report from Nkiru Nwagbo, our Anambra state correspondent, said kerosene has become a very essential commodity in Awka, the state capital and environs.

“A litre is sold for N200 if you’re lucky to get it at some filling stations. From Awka to Nnewi, people have resorted to using firewood, and as expected, the poor families now comb the bushes in search of firewood because not many families can afford to buy enough firewood to meet their cooking now.”

A retail dealer who spoke with The Daily Times in confidence said that sales have reduced since the scarcity started.

“Customers no longer buy their usual quantity because of the increase. Now that five litres is sold for N1,200, our customers are forced to buy just half of what they used to buy, some buy even less.”

The retailer predicts that the way things are going, kerosene may be sold for N250 per liter. Her reason is not farfetched.

“In this business, we make payment to the suppliers to deliver the product and sometimes we wait endlessly for them to deliver.  So whenever the supply is made, the price has to jump up to cover for lost ground.”

Oiza Daudu reporting from Iyana Ipaja area of the state states that scarcity of kerosene is causing untold hardship in many homes.

A widow, Madam Aina Kareem said she is at a loss; “I am a poor widow with five children I’m cater for, but with the current price of kerosene at N220 per litre, how can I cope?

“Now I don’t allow my children to cook anymore so they don’t waste the kerosene in the stove; I now have to cook myself.”

One Miss Gloria Onifade, a petty caterer said she sometimes uses kerosene stove to prepare her chin-chin; “But since the price of kerosene has increased to N220 per liter, I have to raise the price from N50 to N70 and reduce the size a little in other to make a little something for myself and household; but this has reduced sales as customers are complaining. Now, without sales, I will be at a loss. So I don’t even know what to do, sometimes I sell just the transport fare that will take me back home. Where will I run to? I am in my own country,” she said.

“I can’t cook or buy food any more as kerosene and foodstuffs have risen out of my pocket,” a small time washer man, Ndubuisi Okadigwe lamented. “I can’t even make eba because one has to have enough kerosene in his stove, so I have reduced my meal to 0-0-1 per day since I cannot go hungry to bed,” he said.

Officially, Kerosene was meant to sell at N50 per litre, but politics and cartels in the oil marketing had caused the price to rise and had continued rising.

During the Petrol Armada 2011 demonstration by the Save Nigeria Group tagged ‘Kleptocracy Unlimited’, former oil empress, Daziani Alison Madueke was named as the brain behind the cartel that raised the price of kerosene to fund the then ruling party and party elections. Now at over N220 per same litre, black marketers are even warming up to compound the price crisis.

Sources disclosed that the current situation could lead to deforestation, as low income earners who cannot afford kerosene now depend on firewood as alternative source of energy.

No official reason has been advanced for the scarcity. Some oil marketers who spoke to The Daily Times blamed the scarcity and high cost of kerosene on the pricing and supply of the product.

One of the major oil marketers attributed the problem to non-functioning of local refineries to full capacity; the marketers also said that the problem could be best solved by the government if the people responsible for this scarcity can be brought to book.