Petrol has become one of the most sought-after products in the country. Apart from being used for running generator sets for small businesses and at home, most vehicles depend on the product to move around.
Considering the country’s endowment with the product, its supply for domestic use ought to be higher than its demand. It should be readily available for Nigerians to buy at every point in time.
But this is not the case because of the long time abandonment of local refineries and over reliance on fuel importation by past administrations.
Just like under past administrations, the fuel scarcity under the current administration is fast moving to an alarming rate.
Costs of transportation of goods and services, due to the fuel scarcity, have continued to push up prices of goods and services and in turn raised inflation rate in almost every product and services within the Nigerian economy.
Besides the Muhammadu Buhari administration’s plan for a long-term solution such as building new refineries and maintaining existing refineries, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has also mainly taken over importation of fuel from marketers.
While the generality of Nigerians have continued to suffer under the prevailing circumstances, some State House staff are pushing for special intervention.
They believed that it will not be a bad idea for an operational petrol station to be located within the Presidential Villa, which staff will have access to.
Doing that, they said, will make it easy for them to buy fuel especially during period of scarcity.
Presently, Villa staff don’t have access to the only petrol station in the Presidential Villa cited close to the Vice President’s resident.
The staff pointed out that such petrol station has long been cited within the National Assembly premises, which has been serving members of staff, management including lawmakers, especially during fuel scarcity.
Some of the staff wondered why such treatment cannot be extended to State House staff, especially as the petrol station in the National Assembly is located less than two minutes drive from the seat of power via the legislators’ and management’s gate.
One of the staff, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, said: “We are really going through untold hardship just like most Nigerians. Staff presently cannot buy fuel from the only Petrol station by the Vice President’s residence.
“We know that allowing staff to buy fuel from that petrol station may cause so much noise and distractions since it are so close to the Vice President’s residence.
“But they can look into it and set up another petrol station for staff within the Presidential Villa so that we can start enjoying what National Assembly staff have been enjoying for several years,” he added.
While the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has promised that the scarcity will disappear in few weeks, there seems to be no guarantee that the ugly trend will not begin again after few weeks of its disappearance.
The push for setting up such petrol station in the Presidential Villa, no doubt, will boost productivity at the seat of power in the long run.
It will reduce or eliminate the number of working hours Villa staff waste on long fuel queues.
Useful life for Villa staff on retirement
One of the periods many civil servants and private sector employees rea most is after retirement. Many of them always fear what the future will hold for them as one of the fallout of retirement period is stoppage of their monthly salaries and allowances.
Before retirement, most of them have, over the years, solely depended on their salaries and allowances for running their homes including educating their children. Some of them with very meager salaries have found it very difficult to make ends meet even while in service.
They found it almost impossible to have any meaningful savings they could rely on in their retirement period. Because of these, the fear of the retirement period has led to the untimely death of many Nigerians shortly before or after leaving active service. But the Presidency is taking steps to turn the tide.
The Presidency last Thursday commenced a two-day vocational and entrepreneurial programme to prepare its staff adequately for retirement. Declaring open the workshop for prospective retirees, the State House Permanent Secretary, Mr Jalal Arabi, said that the programme was to prepare them mentally and psychologically for retirement.
He said: “What the State House has set out to do is to commence a process of early pre-retirement training for potential retirees.
“This is in the firm belief that adequate planning for retirement will make life after retirement more attractive,”
The workshop for eighty-one prospective retirees scheduled to retire in 2016 and 2017, trained the staff on livestock, fisheries management, poultry and personal finance planning.
Other areas addressed at the workshop included ageing and health challenges in retirement, achieving healthy living after retirement, and the implications of the contributory pension scheme on public servants: retirement perspectives.
While the overall aim of the Presidency is to hold the pre-retirement training at least three to four years before a particular staff retires, it is hoped that it will be sustained to ensure long and eventful life for retirees.
