The high cost of Kerosene in Taraba State has begun to affect the livelihoods of residents, especially low-income households.
The average price of a litre of the product at the time of this report in most filling stations in the state is between N980.00 and N1000.
Residents have attributed the high cost of Kerosene to the sudden increase in the prices of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), commonly called cooking gas.
While calling on the government to look into the situation, the residents said they had resorted to Kerosene use following the increase in gas price but now have to deal with a hike in the cost of Kerosene also.
“When I discovered that the price of cooking gas had gone up from N800 to N1,050k, I immediately decided to go back to Kerosene. But with the recent hike in Kerosene, I must confess that it is very scary and discouraging,” said Jemima Bala, a resident.
Jemima said with my four children, how can I now cope with this present situation that we find ourselves in? I am just a low-income earner.
“Apart from the increase in Kerosene and cooking gas, I even learnt that charcoal and wood are no longer affordable because of the law banning the falling down of trees in this state.”
Also, a mother of six who gave her name as Hajiya Sadiya said “With this development, the only option left for me is to make use of charcoal to cook.
“Though I am very much aware that charcoal and wood that used to be ordinary have become an economic good, I believe it would still be cheaper than kerosene and cooking gas.”
A student of the state University while lamenting, said students are worse hit by the increase in the prices of Kerosene and cooking gas.
“As students, most of us rely solely on our parents. And the majority of us are not from this part of the country. So we don’t have relations nearby that we can run to for help.” She lamented
The student who gave her name as Katherine, said the school environment “is not where one can decide to fall back to the use of charcoal”.
She appealed to the authorities concerned to press on the sellers and dealers of the products to make the products affordable for students.
She said, “How can one survive in this kind of situation? It is expected that as a student, you just have to feed well in order to be able to concentrate on your school work but with this development, how can one achieve this?”
Anderson Illiya, another resident, warned that if urgent measures are not put in place to address the situation, the dream of preventing people from falling down trees will turn out to be a mirage.
“Now that even charcoal and wood are no longer affordable due to the Executive Order prohibiting the falling of trees in our dear state, I think the only way we can come out of this quagmire is for the state government to wade in either by subsidizing the prices of this products on by providing alternative solutions”.
