The current kerosene scarcity, political stories, including the forum for newly-elected and re-elected State governors, probing the post-election violence and the pending Super Eagles’ international engagements early June dominated front pages in Nigeria this past week. ‘Kerosene: Consumers lament scarcity, fear adulteration’, was the headline of the PUNCH newspaper with the story saying that consumers have continued to lament the high cost of Dual Purpose Kerosene in the country amid growing fears of adulteration and its attendant risks. Dual Purpose Kerosene is an essential household product needed by the average Nigerian family for cooking their foods. Experts argue that about 100 million Nigerians, most of whom occupy the bottom rung of the social ladder and representing the largest, yet poorest socio-economic group and typically living on less than 500 naira (about US$ 3) per day, depend on the product whose availability is oftentimes affected by the forces of demand and supply.
Any fluctuation in the supply of such an essential product, not to talk of its scarcity and price hike, affects them badly.
The PUNCH reported that the current scarcity, which may get worse in the coming weeks due to dwindling supply, has been greeted with lamentation by consumers, mostly women, who bear the brunt of spending extra on cooking.
From low income earning civil servants, market women, to artisans and the unemployed, the current price of kerosene and its scarcity have become a burden.
They lament that the product, which sold for about 70 naira a litre for most part of last year, is now being sold for between 140 naira and 170 naira per litre, depending on the location.
While the daily national demand for the product remains at 12 million metric litres, investigations by THE PUNCH revealed that the daily supply of the product had dropped by 66.6 per cent in the last two months.
The NATION, writing under the headline ‘Minister: Why Fed Govt can’t control diesel, kerosene prices’, quoted the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Dieziani Allison-Madueke, as saying that the Federal Government cannot control the pricing of petroleum products like diesel and kerosene once they get into the hands of retailers.
She said since the country operates a free market economy coupled with the fact that some marketers appear to hold the monopoly in the supply of certain products, the government would be operating against the norms of business if it intervenes at certain levels.
Allison-Maduake, however, said that she had given a directive to the authorities at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), to be proactive in devising means of bringing down the pricing of diesel and kerosene, which has drastically gone up in the last four months.
She said: ‘As at today, the three refineries are working. We only import little quantity of diesel. As for kerosene, we give out to the marketers as we have always been doing before the scarcity. We also supply other products adequately. What we can control is the bulk sales price, which is 40 naira per litre of kerosene. Help us ask the marketers why they sell above the price. That is where the span of our control ends.’
Allison-Madueke, while stating that the NNPC and DPR were specifically ordered to ‘come to grips with the pricing of diesel and kerosene,’ noted that since the country operates a free market economy what it does is to ‘continue to flood the market with products in order to stabilise pricing.’
Debunking claims that the NNPC remains the largest importer of diesel, the minister stated that a private marketer controls the importation of the product, while the NNPC only import adequate quantity to meet the demands of the country reserves.
The TRIBUNE, INDEPENDENT, NATION, PUNCH and the VANGUARD all ran stories from the 2011 induction-symposium organised by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) for newly-elected and re-elected governors at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
‘Leave outgoing govs alone, Jonathan tells govs-elect’ with the rider ‘Says he will govern without bias’, according to the TRIBUNE which reported that president Goodluck Jonathan had reminded state governors-elect that the tenure of incumbent governors, who failed to get re-election would end on 29 May, and, therefore, should be allowed to carry on with the business of governance without harassment.
According to the paper, Jonathan’s comments followed the emerging trend of governors-elect attempting to run the show in their states, even when they had not assumed office.
The INDEPENDENT headlined its story on the same story as ‘Jonathan to Govs-elect: Don’t interfer in governance till May 29’.
“We must not set a precedence that will haunt us when we leave office. We are all indigenes of our states. If we must attract the respect of the people, then we must play politics without bitterness,” the INDEPENDENT quoted Jonathan as saying.
Jonathan also charged Governors to entrench democratic tenets and provide the dividends of democracy especially against the background of the success of the April elections which brought or returned them to power.
Taking the story from a totally different angle, the NATION captioned its story ‘EFCC cautions governors-elect against treasury looting, money laundering’, reporting that the anti-graft body (the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) had warned governors-elect against looting the treasury and laundering of state funds abroad.
The paper said the EFCC Chair, Mrs. Farida Waziri, warned governors-elect against operating foreign accounts. Saying that the EFCC was not a monster creating problems for governors, Waziri said ‘only looting governors have cause to fear the anti-graft agency.’
The PUNCH and the VANGUARD also published the story under similar headlines — ‘EFCC warns governors against money laundering’.
On violence, the papers reported that the Presidential Election Tribunal began sitting in Abuja Tuesday with the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, leading the panel. Other members of the panel are, Justices Mohammed Garba, M.A Owoade, I.I. Agbube, and Obande Ogbuinya.
But full hearing could not go on as the main opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) withdrew its earlier ex-parte application to inspect electoral materials. With the withdrawal of the ex-part application, the tribunal struck it out but the CPC filed another application which largely contained the same requests like the one withdrawn.
In the petition – filed by CPC lawyers, Ebun Shofunde, Abubakar Malami, and Alasa Ismail – the party is asking the tribunal to, among others, ‘Set aside the Presidential election of April 16 and organise a new one between Jonathan of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate of the CPC; Nullify the election of Jonathan on the grounds of substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act; Hold that Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo were not duly elected by the majority of lawful votes cast; Declare that Jonathan did not fulfil the requirement of Section 134 (2) of the Constitution; Hold that he did not score the highest votes cast and did not secure two-thirds of the votes cast in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); and Determine that the result declared by Jega on April 18 by which Jonathan was returned as elected President is wrong, invalid, and unlawful.
The CPC said it would prove that there was substantial variation in the voter register used by the INEC for the Presidential and Governorship elections, and that the INEC and Jega unlawfully manipulated the register to the advantage of Jonathan and Sambo.
The following headlines — the PUNCH – ‘Review compensation for slain corps members – Reps’; the NATION – ‘Reps in chaotic session over ‘NYSC 10’ motion’; the SUN – ‘Slain corps members: Reps seek better compensation’; and the TRIBUNE – ‘SERAP drags FG to ECOWAS court, Over death of corps members in post-election violence’ — captured the very popular demand for better compensation for the INEC adhoc staff who were killed across the northern part of the country shortly after the presidential election result was announced.
Speaking when he met family members of the slain staff, president Jonathan announced a compensation of 5 million naira for each of them, an amount the lawmakers said was pittance.
On sports, the papers report on the developments in the Nigerian camp as the national team, the Super Eagles prepare for an international friendly against Argentina and a CAN 2012 qualifier against Ethiopia.
‘Ethiopia names new coach for Eagles’, the SUN reported on Friday. It said Ethiopia has appointed Zimbabwe and Namibia’s former manager, Tom Saintfiet, as coach in place of a Briton, Iffy Onuora, ahead of the 5 June clash with Nigeria.
The 38-year-old Belgian, whose contract details were not disclosed by the Ethiopian Football Federation, will take charge of the Horn of Africa nation when it meets Nigeria at home next month. His predecessor, Onuora, was sacked just 10 months into his two-year contract.
‘We’ll hamstring Eagles–Argentina’s coach’, the SUN also reported, saying that Argentina’s Coach, Sergio Batista, has declared that he would perfect a strategy that would frustrate the Super Eagles in the 1 June international friendly at the National Stadium,Abuja.
The VANGUARD screamed ‘Shocker! Siasia drops Osaze for Ameobi’, reporting that Coach Samson Siasia has left out Osaze Odemwingie from his squad for the encounters.
Instead, Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi has been called up to take part in the high-profile friendly against the South Americans in Abuja and an African Nations Cup qualifier in Addis Ababa.
Siasia explained that Odemwingie was dropped as punishment after missing the friendly against Kenya last month without permission.