Fuel is the next best thing since oxygen. Its not called power for nothing.
Fuel scarcity(Twitter)
People are calling it the
Petrocalypse; the almost non-existent supply of fuel to meet daily needs
from cooking to flying to keeping businesses afloat.
In
Nigeria, our lives revolve around fuel. It’s amazing how fuel made from
stuff that died millions of years ago could mean so much life today.
But this is not a science lesson.
Because most of
our daily activities revolve around this, an absence of fuel means total
collapse, shutdown, and a painfully grinding halt. Of course this
includes power stations which are run on fossil fuel too.
Let’s pretend for one deep breath that we’ve reached the grinding halt.
Every
aspect of our lives will be affected. Except perhaps the cooking part.
If you’ve forgotten or haven’t heard of it, you should find out what an
Abacha stove is. It might come in handy.
Even though many other things will suffer, five things are most significant:
Transportation: some
airlines have grounded domestic operations. People are parking their
cars and walking to bus stops to meet rickety buses charging the price
of flight tickets for bus fares, or even worse, no buses at all.
Bicycles are popular again, and the winners are those trekkers who were
trekking all over the country and have now fully gotten used to moving
around with their feet.
Stranded passengers at the Lagos airport(Twitter)
The Economy: Businesses
are closing till the happy fuel days are back again. Telecomm companies
are sending out messages telling their customers to brace themselves,
saying services are about to get ugly. And you start to wonder what
beautiful feels like considering how ugly the service is now. Note that
your internet is going to suffer too. Or die completely. Banks are
closing early because they don’t have fuel. So out of fear, people are
rushing to the banks to withdraw as much as they can. Cashless policy
isn’t so attractive anymore. You realise how right your great-grandma
was; keeping money in your wrapper is very reliable. Now with enough
cash floating around in wallets and homes…your guess is as good as mine.
Security: What
is interesting to note about crime is that it is mostly born out of
desperation. Knowing that the statistics are in their favour, robbers,
might tend to get fund of visiting. The police on the other hand are
pulling off their patrols because, fuel is not your friend.
Fuel scarcity(Twitter)
Health: Imagine
holding the hand of a loved one on life support. The generators will be
going off in a few minutes. You start to hear the generator hiccup as
it gulps the last drops of fuel. Then it goes off. Then the backup
batteries of the life support start to drain, and eventually die. That
hand you are holding will start to grow cold. All the decades of medical
advancement are reversed to the old, manual methods. Overwhelming.
Silence:
Look outside and see how quiet it has become. The generators are quiet,
the speakers are mute. You start to feel like you are in the village
for holidays.
Petrol station shut down due to fuel scarcity(Twitter)
But then again, we haven't reached the grinding halt. Not yet. Not ever, hopefully.
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