For Nigerias severely depleted forest resources and the environment, the future is becoming increasingly grim, as scarcity and prohibitive prices have forced countless households to abandon kerosene and cooking gas in favour of firewood. In the rural communities and among urban low-income earners, firewood has become the preferred cooking fuel as most households can procure it at comparatively little or no financial cost from farmlands and wooded areas around settlements. Nine months of persistent shortfall in kerosene supply has shot up the pump price of the product from N50 per litre in March, 2011 to N140-N180 per litre in November and December, 2011. In the intervening months, between May and early October 2011, it hovered between N120 and N160, and then dropped to N88 per litre by the end of the latter month. By mid-November, the pump price in Lagos and many other cities had climbed back up to N180 per litre and has remained at that level, even as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation continues to deceive the government and the public that the product is available at the official pump price of N50 per litre.The price of liquefied petroleum gas, otherwise known as cooking gas, has taken a cue, climbing from N3, 200 per 12.5 kilogramme cylinder at retail outlets in late October to N3, 700 for the same measure by the end of November. The Nigeria LPG Association claims that the major source of supply of the product is being starved and that "supply contracts have expired." The contracts have to be renewed before any improvements in supply could be expected. But it is common knowledge that increased demand arising from the surge in kerosene price is equally a factor in the scarcity of LPG as some kerosene consumers switch over. Cooking fuel is an essential of life inasmuch as food is critical to human survival. The connection between affordability (of the product) and the welfare of citizens is self-evident, a factor that inclines governments everywhere else in the world to prioritise adequacy of supply all year round. Nigeria, too, once had it as a cardinal policy to ensure availability and affordability of kerosene, because of the concern over the severe deforestation occasioned by the southward push of the Sahara Desert, bush burning and the activities of illegal loggers and others seeking firewood. Things changed for the worse in 1999/2000, when the government introduced a faulty "deregulation" programme, thereby creating loopholes that are now routinely exploited by unscrupulous petroleum product marketers and their collaborators in the NNPC. Until 1999, kerosene was sold for N17 per litre. Households found it cleaner and more convenient than firewood, a situation much in line with the Federal Governments policy objectives. LPG is even cleaner than kerosene, and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, Bonny, Rivers State, has dedicated 150,000 metric tonnes per annum to the domestic market, where total demand is estimated at 108,000 metric tonnes per annum. In the face of the protracted crises in the supply of cooking fuel, the evident nonchalance of the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is, to say the least, regrettable. Why is the President not bothered about critical issues, such as the current scarcity of cooking fuel, that touch the lives of the people' Are his close advisers and ministers supplying him with accurate reports about the harrowing social conditions in the country' In the leadership of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the management of the NNPC, there is such glaring incompetence, lack of transparency and corruption that end up jeopardising national aims and objectives. No responsible government would tolerate such corruption-induced crises that have compounded the economic hardships of citizens and undermined the national strategy on the curtailment of deforestation.The Federal Government should urgently address the issues in the shortage of kerosene and cooking gas. NNPC has always been economical with the truth by blaming kerosene scarcity on the diversion of the product to illegal channels. The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, recently put the daily kerosene need at over eight million litres while about 11 million litres is provided to the market. She further disclosed that a large percentage of that is "hoarded, diverted and illegally moved." Who are the distributors' How many of them have been arrested and prosecuted' Regrettably, she has not been able to muster the courage to expose the racketeers in the petroleum industry. The National Assembly should demand accountability from the Minister and the NNPCs Group Managing Director, Mr. Austen Oniwon, about the kerosene scandal. They should be forced to deliver solutions immediately. LPG supply, on the other hand, could be easily guaranteed if logistic requirementsvessels for shipment from source (NLNG, Bonny, Rivers State), facilities to receive the products at jetties in coastal towns, and vehicles to transport same to the hinterlandare taken care of. It is the responsibility of the government to create an enabling environment for private investors to fill any gaps in the distribution chain.
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