As the country grapples with the scarcity of premium motor spirit (petrol), the Nigerian Feminist Forum (NFF) has called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to urgently address the situation as the impact of the hardship has been dire on Nigerian women and girls.
NFF made the demand on Thursday via a statement – ‘Save Nigerian Women and Girls From Hardship, Resolve Fuel Scarcity Now’ – issued by its Communications Officer, Angela Nkwo.
The group called on the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to ensure petroleum products are sold at approved prices nationwide, and penalties for hoarders and those who sell above approved prices of the product.
According to the NFF, the scarcity has exposed Nigerian women and girls to violence as miscreants have capitalised on it to snatch phones and rob people of possessions while on long queues.
The group lamented that if the situation was not checked, it could force thousands of Nigerian women out of business because of rising inflation that will consume their capital and run them out of business.
It maintained that lack of petroleum products to power street lights exposed women and girls to rapists and urchins who hide behind the cover of darkness to perpetrate harm, and cause them untold psychological, mental health challenges and physical trauma.
The NFF said: “We restate that the safety of over 140million women and girls hangs on the availability of fuel for their businesses to run effectively and save us from endless domestic violence within our supposed safe spaces”, even as it called for urgent and proactive steps to address the scarcity.
NFF noted for about a month now, Nigerians in different parts of the country had been grappling with fuel scarcity even as there seemed to be no concrete efforts to address the concerns.
While it called for the prosecution of everyone connected to the importation of adulterated fuel, NFF called on the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) to check the prices of foodstuff and services to save Nigerian women and girls from exorbitant prices by greedy business people.
According to NFF, fuel played a major role in the country especially in the face of epileptic power supply which has made business owners resort to it as primary instead of alternative power supply, saying they were alarmed at the growing hardship meted out against women and girls over the scarcity.
It noted that petroleum products were used in a variety of activities ranging from production, mobility, cooking, electricity, supply, sources of foreign exchange, saying it played a tremendous role in the lives of every citizen and the country as a whole.
The group stated that the scarcity had resulted in astronomical rise in transportation costs, especially for female traders who transverse the country to buy foodstuff and other household items, while the economic implication is increased cost of living.
According to NFF, if not addressed immediately, the fuel scarcity will result in hunger and starvation as “the prices of cooking gas, kerosene, coal has quadrupled and we are worried they may increase way above our reach, which may subject us to hunger and starvation”.
NFF stated that the number of women and girls exposed to spousal violence and other forms of gender-based violence had increased within one-month because after spending long hours on fuel queues, husbands return home to display their frustration on them and other family members.
Further, the group said their wards and members who were students in different tertiary institutions were unable to afford the high transportation costs as they head home to observe the one-month warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
