One of the topics my group is planning on looking into for the project is the scarcity of fuel in Nigeria. In recent news, Nigeria, Africa’s biggest exporter of petroleum, has been experiencing a major shortage of fuel in terms of production for use by its citizens. A lot it is because of fuel subsidies. The Fuel importers are seen to be more powerful than the Nigerian government as in 2011, the government agreed to spend $1.6 billion to subsidise the fuel however at the end of the year, $15 billion was expended. This shows how weak at the knees the Nigerian government can be when dealing with money. That said, the fuel scam, one of the largest heists in Nigeria’s history, also prompted harsh realisations about corruption. Corruption has been in place in Nigeria since anyone can remember and it is not helping any cause especially in the case of fuel. If the scarcity continues, the entire country of Nigeria will be on a standstill with banks, tv stations, and even airlines shutting down. The crisis is a very serious one and needs to be addressed through a number of different policies that my group will delve much more deeply into if this topic is chosen.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/27/opinions/nigeria-fuelscarcity-op-ed/