Femi Adeshina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, said Nigeria has only seen one major fuel scarcity since the start of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

He said this on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, adding that the Buhari-led administration brought normalcy to petroleum supply for years.

CLAIM: Nigeria has only seen one major fuel scarcity since the start of the Buhari government.

 “Each time this issue of fuel scarcity comes up, there is also a word that comes to my mind. That word is called ‘SNAFU’, and it’s an acronym for Situation Normal All Filed Ups,” Adeshina said.

“What happened is a SNAFU in the petrol supply chain in the country. In the life of this administration, which will be seven years in May, it is only one major fuel scarcity we have had.”

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VERIFICATION: The BBC reported in November 2015 that a “severe fuel shortage” hit Nigeria, with long queues of angry motorists waiting for hours outside petrol stations in major cities to fill up.

BBC described it at the time as the biggest fuel shortage in Nigeria since Buhari took office. This was because the fuel crisis halted economic activities in major cities like Lagos to some extent.

In April 2016, Nigerian on Twitter used hashtags #EndFuelCrisisNow, #NoFuel, and #NoLight to voice their frustrations over a fuel crisis that had lasted over seven days. The Vanguard reported in May 2016 that the April fuel scarcity had resurfaced.

In December 2017, there was a nationwide fuel crisis around the Christmas festive period. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) claimed marketers hoarded the product. Reports indicate that the severity of the fuel crisis made people sleep in fuel stations. At the same time, transportation fares doubled. The crisis led to a surge of black markets and unequal fuel prices in the southwest.

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When citizens raised the alarm over an impending scarcity in 2021, the NNPC said it would not happen. But in February 2022, fuel scarcity started disrupting the daily lives of Nigerians again.

CONCLUSION: Nigeria has seen more than one major fuel scarcity since the start of the Buhari government.

VERDICT: The claim that Nigeria has only witnessed one major fuel crisis under the Buhari administration is false.