May 26, 2015, Nigeria was thrown into pandemonium "A total blackout, Major Telecommunication companies I.e. MTN and Globacomm threaten to shut down, Power drops from 4,800MW to 1,327MW, shortage of Petrol looms Nationwide, the saboteur seems to be winning the war".

At a paper stand, A frustrated Nigerian in quotes stated "What has happened to the country and its citizen lends credence to the perception that the president is really CLUELESS, he cannot speak on the matter because he himself has no understanding of the situation"
http://dailypost.ng/2015/05/26/shutdown-of-oil-power-sector-jonathan-under-fire-over-silence/

The question is, was GoodLuck Ebele Jonathan actually CLUELESS as claimed?

Femi-Fani-Kayode asked? Why have they taken this time when all hands are on deck for the march 28 elections to cause this artificial fuel scarcity? The situation is so bad that they are not importing the product. They are even threatening tank farmers not to release any fuel in their depot in order to sustain shortages", this show how desperate and wicked the opposition APC can be in their quest for presidential power. Must they make Nigerians suffer simply because they want to rule? They must desist from this sabotage.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/177824-apc-behind-fuel-scarcity-plotting-sabotage-of-power-supply-jonathans-campaign.html


In the same vein, the Minister for Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also responded but with a different perception. "She accused the petroleum products marketers of blackmail​ by masterminding the fuel scarcity that has threatened to ground the economy.
According to her, it was shocking that barely a week after she reached an agreement over ​​N200 billion ​fuel ​claims​,​ the marketers reneged and failed to continue selling fuel to consumers.
Mrs.​ Okonjo-Iweala​,​ who spoke of efforts the government was making to ensure that the marketers’ claims were paid, said apart from the N154 billion paid a fortnight ago, about N31 billion and N350 billion were paid to the marketers previously.
She said it was curious that despite these efforts by the ​government in a year it was going through difficult times,​ the​ marketers ​were showing so much bad faith.
​The minister said after the N154 billion was paid and the marketers claim up with ​a new​ request of N200 billion as ​their ​outstanding claims, it was found out that about N159 billion was actually what they were asking for as exchange rate differential.
Consequently, she said it was agreed that a committee be set up to verify the claims before the payment was be made.
The committee was headed by the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Farouk Ahmed, with the Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Abraham Nwankwo, as well as two Directors-General from the Ministry as members.
“The marketers wanted me (Minister) to sign the claim for the payment of N159 billion and I said no, because Nigerian​s​ don’t ​know ​what is exchange rate differential. We had to call those agencies responsible to verify those claims in view of the fact that there has been so much fraud and manipulations in the claims by oil marketers​.”

www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/183548-fuel-crisis-%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8Bokonjo-iweala-accuses-oil-marketers-of-blackmail.html

The challenge before President Buhari(As Petroleum Minister and President)

1. Despite pumping about 2million barrels of oil a day; Nigeria refines no more than 100,000b/d and has to import more than two third of its domestic fuel requirement. Why? Because none of our refinery is functional. Don't forget, we were promised that Kaduna Refinery will be fully functional before the end of June against the promise of February 2016 by GEJ government, now this present administration have postpone it to december! Don't be surprise if its actually shifted to February initially promised by the past administration. How about other refineries?

2. When the Government is responsible for setting the price of petroleum products, how can it be commercially viable? Are we ready for deregulation? Private sectors investment in refining has been stymied largely because the government sets the price of petroleum products. Also, every government that attempt to deregulate are always faced with a fierce resistance from vested interest. How will PMB survive this? When some of this interest groups are part of is administration

3. Broken subsidy system: Fuel marketers have long benefited from this broken subsidies system. They over charge the state for fuel they import and often do not deliver the product they are paid for, diverting it instead to neighbouring countries where it is sold by smugglers for further profit. How will PMB put an end to this?

4. According to the PWC audit report about 232,000 barrels of oil are estimated to be stolen everyday, meaning billions of dollars of government revenue are been siphoned. How will he proffer solutions to this?

The real test

It was good news to many, when the news broke that, President Buhari has appointed himself as the substantive Minister of Pretroleum.

That was rather strange to me. I knew for sure he's no expert or a trained professional on petroleum matters bearing in mind he's a well trained retired General in the Nigerian army.

He should have appointed himself Minister Of Defense, since he had promised during the campaigns to personally lead the fight against Boko Haram.


Alhaji Debo Ahmed, The Chairman Of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association Of Nigeria, Seoth Western Zone, Said In A Statement And I Quote:

“We marketers within the South-
West of Lagos, Ibadan, Ore, Ilorin
and Ekiti found it extremely
difficult to load at Apapa depot due to bottleneck at the depot.

“It causes us a minimum of four
days to load product at Apapa
private depots which grossly affects our business and investment.

“Private depots also take undue
advantage to sell petrol to
marketers at N 82 and N 84 per
litre as against depot official price
of N 77.66 k, ...

''Some of the private depots who displayed N77.60 on their billboard as ex-depot price, have also created other accounts into which customers pay additional money, thus increasing the ex-depot price through the back door.

''Over 4,000 trucks from the North and Western Zone queue
indefinitely at Apapa to load
product. The independent marketers have not been able to load petrol in all NNPC depots in the South West since September ...

“There might be scarcity of products soon because marketers
now face serious problems getting
the products

Good things happen when you are commited and have understanding to a particular situation....so OP keep calm baba is working