Nigeria, on Friday, June 12, celebrated twenty-seven years of uninterrupted democracy. By reflection, it was almost unanimous that one of the gains of democracy is the freedom it offers citizens to voice out their opinions and participate in governance process.
But on the flip side, it also seems like this particular freedom has become the most abused, especially with the advent and popularity of social media, which makes almost everybody experts in all trades.
With an internet enabled phone, almost unknowingly, one can become an ultracrepidarian, pontificating about subjects one has little or no knowledge about. In some cases, because of this lack of rudimentary knowledge, opinions overflow from the region of reasonable criticism to frontal attack.
A clear case is yesterday’s article written by one MistaGentle Samuel against the person of the Honourable Minister of State, Petroleum Resources (Gas), Rt. Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo.
I have a hunch that the mentioned gentleman is a good citizen, who only wanted to exercise his right to criticize a government official, which the minister himself has no issues with, but unfortunately he did that without sufficient knowledge of the minister’s achievements, his work ethics and, maybe, his efforts.
The would-have-been good citizen thereby erred in taking a blanket swipe at the Honourable Minister .
To wit, he wholely attributed the rise in the cost of cooking gas to the Honourable Minister, while painting a picture that suggests the Honourable Minister has done nothing about it.
I think that if the writer was squarely knowledgeable about current international issues surrounding crude oil and petroleum products, and the interwoven nature of gas business, he would have understood that the War in the Middle East and the resultant constant closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major International crude oil pathway, is responsible for the current surge in the cost of Petroleum products, including cooking gas.
To the best of my knowledge, if the US-Israel-Iran war ceases, in a matter of days or weeks, the price of crude oil will come crashing down, and related products, whether petrol or gas, will follow, correspondingly.
Also, before the disruptive war in the Middle East, the Honourable Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas) had already came up with a policy that banned the export of cooking gas, and that policy remains in full force till date, as recently reported by many newspapers, including the Punch Newspaper of June 12, 2026.
This was done to ensure the sufficiency, availability, and affordability of cooking gas, as the policy priotises the domestic market.
Inasmuch as nobody is happy about the current price of cooking gas, using it to disparage the Honourable Minister, in other to diminish his sterling performance these past three years, is grossly unfair.
There is no argument that he owes Nigerians the duty to make cooking gas available and affordable, but it is also clear that the war in the Middle East is completely out of the minister’s control.
Rt. Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo would never sit idly and watch Nigerians groan under the weight of exorbitant price of cooking gas, especially now that he is working very hard to deepen gas penetration in Nigeria, in line with Mr President’s Decade of Gas Initiative.
