Nigerians and strikes are five and six. You can’t honestly claim to have had the full Nigerian experience if you’ve not taken part in one, or been affected by them. If you’ve passed through the public school system then ASUU must have wiped a cord around your neck. And if you’ve had to buy fuel, you must have seen shege waiting your turn at a filling station.
On that last point, it looks like things are about to get pretty rough as oil tanker drivers in the country have threatened to go on strike. And it’s not for the usual reasons.
What’s the wahala this time?
The truckers who transport fuel to depots across the country have a union. It’s called the “Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers” aka PTD-NUPENG.
On January 5, 2023, it was reported following a press briefing in Abuja that PTD-NUPENG planned to go on strike over the highhandedness and harassment by security agencies. Its national chairman, Lucky Osesua, said that men of the military task force in Port-Harcourt burnt two of its trucks carrying High Pour Fuel Oil, otherwise known as black oil, on Tuesday night.
The excuse for burning the trucks was that they allegedly carried crude oil. PTD-NUPENG said the drivers politely presented documents showing that they weren’t carrying crude oil. The task force was like…
Sigh. What else is there to the gist?
Beyond the point that burning oil is wasteful as well as bad for the environment, a fight between truck drivers and security agencies isn’t good for Nigerians. Fuel is scarce and expensive to get in many places across the country. So this fight simply makes a bad situation worse.
On social media, Nigerians are anticipating that it might escalate which could lead to hoarding and ultimately, longer queues.
We hope the government steps in to resolve this issue quickly. We have enough wahala as it is, let’s not add another strike to it.
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