Diesel scarcity: We'll soon shut down our operations

As scarcity of premium motor spirit and diesel ravages Nigeria, the Northern Broadcast Media Owners Association (NBMOA) has warned that radio and television stations would soon shut down their operations in the northern part of the country.

The association added that epileptic power supply has also compounded their situation.

The association is made up of owners of radio and TV stations in the 19 northern state of the country.

Fuel scarcity

Nigerians have been experiencing a serious fuel scarcity which resulted into long queues at filling stations across the country with many of the stations out of supply.

Some weeks ago, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) urged Nigerians to be patient, saying it had distributed products nationwide to end the scarcity that had lingered for weeks.

The NNPC said this in a statement by GarbaDeen Muhammad, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC Limited.

The corporation urged Nigerians to be patient, saying it has sufficient stock of petroleum products for distribution across the country.

It said it was engaging depot operators to load products round the clock to accelerate the restoration of normal distribution.

We’re in a serious situation – Broadcasters

In an interview with BBC Hausa Monday evening as monitored by PREMIUM TIMES, the immediate former Chairman of the association, Tijjani Ramalan, said members of the association were finding it difficult to operate because of the fuel and diesel scarcity in the country.

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“We are going through tough times to be on air because first, there is no stable electricity and the scarcity in fuel and diesel is always increasing. It is disheartening because we don’t have a way out of the problems. You people need to know that 100 per cent of our operations are being done with diesel or fuel because there is no electricity,” he said.

Mr Ramalan, who is the Chairman of Liberty Radio and Television, said a litre of diesel has now reached between N720 and N730 which he said he cannot afford.

He called on the federal government to take measures and ensure improvement in electricity supply across the country for broadcast organisations and other businesses to continue operating.

“As I stated earlier there are issues but our main problem now is the diesel scarcity which if not taken care of may lead to us shutting our operations which means our workers to stay at home till the situation improves,” he added.