Most government officials in Nigeria are fond of announcing fuzzy, if not unfeasible proposals with relish. In the mid-1980s, for instance, a new system of education known as the 6-3-3-4 was announced with aplomb. The first six years was for primary school while the six years for secondary school was split into two i.e. 3-3. The first three years was meant for every pupil but the second three years was strictly for only those who were good in academics. Workshops to train those who were not good in academics as artisans, it was announced with glee, were to be set up in every secondary school. In addition to this, reputable private workshops to train those the school workshops could not absorb were also to be sourced for these students. But as everybody knows, this plan has not been realised ever since. The workshops are not just there and if not out of financial constraints, no parent wants their child to drop out of secondary school after only three years in order to learn a trade! is the proposed ban on individuals from owning Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders popularly known as cooking gas. The announcement was made by the representative of the minister of state for petroleum resources at a meeting dubbed as “Stakeholders’ forum” at Abuja on Tuesday, May 21, 2019. The main reason the minister gave for this proposed ban was to “deepen gas penetration” (whatever that means) in the country. If one may ask, how would a few companies supplying gas cylinders to millions of Nigerians deepen its use more that the hundreds of youths who are already in the business today? Is our collective memory so short to have forgotten that we have passed through this route before?
Up to the early 1990s, cylinders and the gas itself were marketed by big petroleum companies, most of them multinationals. Then, their cylinders were filled by their gas plants located in a few cities and transported in trucks to their stations all over the country. The minimum size then was the 12.5kg bottle. Their cylinders were not interchangeable and some of them also manufactured stoves to be used with their cylinders. Users then bought and refilled their cylinders in these outlets. Anytime the gas was finished, users drove to these outlets with their empty bottles to pick the already filled ones after paying for the content. But all these big companies gradually began withdrawing from this business and by 2000, they disappeared altogether from most cities. Some smart entrepreneurs then stepped in with gas plants but they were too few and too isolated to cater to the few who were then using gas stoves and as a result many abandoned their cylinders and went back to kerosene stoves or even to firewood! is the proposed ban on individuals from owning Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders popularly known as cooking gas. The announcement was made by the representative of the minister of state for petroleum resources at a meeting dubbed as “Stakeholders’ forum” at Abuja on Tuesday, May 21, 2019. The main reason the minister gave for this proposed ban was to “deepen gas penetration” (whatever that means) in the country. If one may ask, how would a few companies supplying gas cylinders to millions of Nigerians deepen its use more that the hundreds of youths who are already in the business today? Is our collective memory so short to have forgotten that we have passed through this route before?
Up to the early 1990s, cylinders and the gas itself were marketed by big petroleum companies, most of them multinationals. Then, their cylinders were filled by their gas plants located in a few cities and transported in trucks to their stations all over the country. The minimum size then was the 12.5kg bottle. Their cylinders were not interchangeable and some of them also manufactured stoves to be used with their cylinders. Users then bought and refilled their cylinders in these outlets. Anytime the gas was finished, users drove to these outlets with their empty bottles to pick the already filled ones after paying for the content. But all these big companies gradually began withdrawing from this business and by 2000, they disappeared altogether from most cities. Some smart entrepreneurs then stepped in with gas plants but they were too few and too isolated to cater to the few who were then using gas stoves and as a result many abandoned their cylinders and went back to kerosene stoves or even to firewood!
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