Success Nwogu 
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has urged the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu, to declare a state of emergency on gas penetration. IPMAN’s National Operations Controller, Mr Mike Osatuyi, in an interview with Sunday Telegraph, yesterday, also said the state of emergency on gas was imperative to cushion the lacerating effect of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise called petrol by President Tinubu and the resultant hardship on Nigerians.
He stated that government should activate measures for Nigerians to convert their vehicles from petrol to gas-powered. He said IPMAN stations are ready to assist government improve gas access to Nigerians. “We have gas in the country and it can last for more than 400 years and it is cheaper. We have to declare an emergency on gas so that there will be more gas usage. If we had been serious about gas for the past five or seven years, we will not be where we are.
“Government should declare a total gas emergency and finance gas facilities, such as the kits, conversion centres and also the trucks to convey the gas to the stations where it will be sold to the public. We need vehicles to transport the CNG. In Benin City, Edo State, many of the vehicles in the state use gas because they have been on it for many years. If you declare an emergency on gas, let government finance it totally.
“The stations of IPMAN are available to sell CNG to vehicles but do we have facilities in the stations? No! How do we then finance it? How do you now bring the truck? How will vehicles in Nigeria con- vert to gas? All those are the things that need to be done by the government. That is what I mean by the emergency. We cannot depend on gas without the vehicles and we cannot depend on the vehicles without them being converted.
“We can go into CNG. The conversion cost of the vehicles is the issue. If you are even converting to CNG, where are the stations for the conversion? We have the stations but the facilities are not in place in those stations. So, government should come in two ways. They can provide facilities in all the stations for the conversion of our vehicles and at the same time.
“The conversion cost is about N300,000 and N400,000 per vehicle, depending on how big the car is. Can Nigerians afford this cost at this time? No! Then what do we do? The government can provide a kind of soft loan and do what was done in Malaysia and Bangladesh by spreading the cost of the con- version or the CNG, so that as we are buying the CNG, we are paying for the cost of the conversion but it is very minimal and nobody will even know that we are paying.
