I feel very sad that this fuel scarcity of a thing in Lagos is still on after several weeks. The amount of traffic this scarcity cause is tremendous. What makes it even more bitter for me is the fact that upon the scarcity and silly queues you end up even paying more for the fuel. You know, its like you are being cheated and you know it but not being able to do anything about it.
It occurred to me one day after buying some fuel, I asked the driver, "the fuel in the car should be more than this ah ah what happened?" He explain that he bought the fuel at N110 per litre instead of the usual N97. Meanwhile the price advertised at the filling station was N97. So I told him to buy from other filling stations that sold at N97 next time.
He got to Total filling station another day and had to pay N200 nozzle fee before the fuel was sold to him. Nozzle Fee? What is Nozzle fee? Wonders shall never end in my lovely Lagos State. So whose pocket is this nozzle fee going into?
Anyway, this morning I discovered this trend going on especially with the filling stations around me, what they do is this: those ones that sell at N97 per litre sell in the mornings a bit into the afternoon, then the rogues open in the afternoons and towards the evening when the N97 per litre ones stop selling. So basically once the N97 per litre ones are not not selling the N110 litre ones start selling. If your tank is almost empty you wouldn't have a choice but to buy from them or if you didn't have the opportunity to leave work ontime. I know that NNPC filling stations don't get involved with that dodgy deal.
Those big eyed attendants will build houses from the illegal money they are making from selling petrol at silly prices. They actually act like its their right. I challanged one lady fuel assistant the other day, she even brought out her calculator to explain to me that they sold at N110(though N97 was advertised on their board) at their own filling station and she had that kind of attitude that said "If you don't want to pay, please step aside, who is next?". I didn't have a choice but to pay, my fuel tank was almost empty and the other customers were busy saying "ah madam, thats how we buy it here o".
So, instead of fighting with fuel attendants, I target filling stations that sell at N97 per litre and don't charge nozzle fee.
How have you all been coping with the fuel scarcity?
You can also read a post I wrote a couple of years ago about my cousin's experience at a filling station here
