The Lingering Nationwide Fuel Crisis in South Sudan and the Way Forward
By Abel Majur Leek, Bor, Jonglei State
April 23rd 2016 (SSB) —- The issue of fuel crisis is one out of the many societal problems bedeviling the South Sudanese states and which requires utmost concern of patriots, because of its debilitating effect on the economy and the health of the people.
Apart from the economic dislocation caused by the perennial fuel scarcity nationwide, South Sudanese are also subjected to the psychological trauma of having to spend endless hours on fuel queues, traffic jams, needless injuries, damage to limbs, loss of properties and deaths as a result of the fuel crisis which seems to defy solution.
The reason why South Sudanese must ever than before, be pained and focus their attention on the oil industry which has become a pain in our neck and ask questions is because, it is our collective patrimony and it will be a great disservice, irresponsibility and eternal shame to the memory of our founding fathers and generations unborn if we surrender it to a cabal or cabals as the case may be, who have repeatedly been alleged of being in control of the collective wealth of the people, which is totally unacceptable.
Thus, the issue of fuel crisis became a drain pipe on the nation’s resources and a recurring decimal in the life of the country as a result of the non-functioning of the nation’s refinery for processing crude oil into petroleum products.
However, with time, the fuel became a conduit pipe for corruption being perpetuated by those in charge of managing our oil industry and was eventually exposed when the citizenry resisted and increase in the price of fuel prices in late November 2015 despite calls for debates and dialogues on the propriety of the fuel subsidy regime which had been described as a fraud before then.
Thus, it is not unexpected that the illegally and criminally resist change of the status quo through acts of economic sabotage by oil pipelines vandalization, diversion and hoarding of products which can be explained in the manifestation of endless queues and scarcity of the petroleum products nationwide and this for us as citizens, is unacceptable and in need of a call to duty by patriots to cooperate and collaborate with government against those who are profiting from our collective pains and the time to act is now!
Thus, the time has come to admonish the Government which seems to be facing stout resistance in eradicating the lingering nationwide fuel scarcity through massive importation and distribution of petroleum products to the fuel stations than the number of trucks required per day in the states in recent times, to convoke a summit of stakeholders, security agencies, labour, professional bodies, manufacturers associations, civil society groups, youth organizations, religious and traditional leaders, etc to identify and proffer immediate and lasting solutions to the gaps in the distribution network which has contributed in no small measure to this national embarrassment of fuel queues.
States governments must also realize that part of their responsibility to the welfare of the citizenry dictates that they should be involved in monitoring and distribution of petroleum products to their states marketers, since any shortcoming has negative effect on the economy and security of the state.
We must also encourage South Sudanese to realize that we don’t have any other country apart from South Sudan and like the saying goes, the way we make our bed, is the way we will lay on it. Therefore, it behooves on us to awaken our patriotic consciousness to take our destiny in our hands by asking questions from the relevant authorities so as to be better informed on the fuel situation and know where the problem of this scarcity lies with a view to proffering solutions. People must stop playing politics and engaging in profiteering at the expense of the economic well-being of the citizenry and country.
Thanks to my dear readers
Email me via abeleek2@gmail.com
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