Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, has said that the challenges being faced by Nigerians on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, was not new in the country.
Nigerians are passing through hard times buying the commodity after contaminated petrol was imported into the country by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in February.
According to reports, oil marketers estimated that about 100 million litres of contaminated petrol were imported into Nigeria and had been recalled by the Pipelines Product Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the NNPC.
The recall caused queues in Lagos, Abuja and many other cities, as the few petrol outlets that dispensed products were crowded by Nigerians from all walks of life.
Many other petrol stations had been shutdown for lack of products to sell, while black marketers took advantage of the situation in Abuja and Lagos.
Reacting to the crisis, Adesina said that Nigerians faced similar challenges in the past, adding that fuel crisis had been recurrent event in the country.
The presidential spokesman disclosed this in an article titled, ‘Knock, Knock. Who’s There’, and shared on his official Facebook page on Thursday, adding that Nigerians had slept in petrol stations queing for fuel on several occasion.
The article read in part, “It’s obviously not the easiest of times in our country currently, with severe fuel scarcity exacerbating the other existential challenges we have been coping with. In some areas, there’s no fuel, no electricity, thus translating to severe energy crisis.”
While admitting that the fuel crisis had made life very difficult for a lot of Nigerians, Adesina noted that the Buhari regime was working hard to restore normalcy.
“There were cases of bad fuel before in this country. We slept for days, weeks on end at petrol stations, queuing for fuel. We survived. We will survive again. Las las.
“President Muhammadu has promptly approved the sum of $8.5m for the evacuation of Nigerians in Ukraine. Good. That’s what a responsible father does to family members in distress. He’s also working night and day, ensuring the country has fuel, power, infrastructure, and all the good things of life.
“I’ve come to knock and ring and tap on your door today, to remind you that it is not all doom and gloom in our country. However overcast the sky is, there’s always a shimmer of light.”
“Fuel crisis will come and go. Energy crisis will be resolved. Nigerians who appreciate good things will be made happy progressively,” Adesina said.
