Outgoing Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, in this interview with Arit Essanga, a freelance journalist with the African Free Press, in London, explains the intricacies and how she tackled the cabals in Nigeria’s oil industry. Excerpts.
Thank you for granting me a few minutes of your time for this pressing discussion about the future of policy evolution in Nigeria. But I want to quickly talk about the fuel scarcity that has come just weeks before the hand-over to the new administration.
The time of my appointment as Minister of Petroleum Resources 5 years ago was a time when the nation was in the throes of many years of continuous fuel scarcity and the abandonment of our fuel facilities. This was having such an adverse impact on the masses, especially in terms of livelihood and quality of life.
This situation certainly affected me and my household. I was one of those who went out to queue at filling stations and what left an indelible mark on me was the plight of the many, many women who were queuing for this essential commodity for their families! We are looking at time when women where losing their lives as a result of adulterated products as kerosene stoves were exploding all over the country! So the problem was not just about getting access to the product but also purchasing the right quality products to ensure the safety of their households of my fellow women.
It was a time when cars were ‘knocking’, generators that cost hundreds of thousands of naira were also breaking down because of adulterated products. People around the country were losing many millions of Naira as a result of loss of business incomes and we are talking of taxi drivers, face-me-I-face-you traders in the market, the lorry drivers transporting food to the markets, the okada drivers – basically the engine room of the economy was.....Read more
source:www.vanguardngr.com
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