By Francesca Hangeior

The Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN), has advised Nigerians against panic buying of fuel, assuring the public of sufficient stock.

The association’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Clement Isong, advised in a statement on Thursday in Lagos over perceived shortages in the petroleum supply market.

“MEMAN assures the public and all stakeholders that we have significant stocks of products in our tanks and access to supplies from our partners, including Dangote Refinery and NNPC Trading Limited.

“We also have a clear outlook on future supplies of all petroleum products,” Isong stated.

He highlighted that the diversification of supply and market deregulation enabled diligent marketers to plan and secure their supply needs in advance, minimising the risk of outages.

According to him, MEMAN does not foresee any disruptions in the availability of petroleum products either in the immediate future or near term.

Isong reiterated the importance of avoiding panic buying, noting that supply efficiency was improving, and logistics operations were being optimised.

He assured that MEMAN members were committed to optimising their supply chains to ensure the highest levels of availability, accessibility, and affordability for consumers in an increasingly competitive environment.

Born in a private Catholic maternity hospital in Wimbledon, she grew up in Nigeria where her father was a medical doctor, a general practitioner, and her mother a lecturer in physiology.

When the country’s economy collapsed in the 1990s, her parents took advantage of her British passport to get her out, sending her at the age of 16 to live with a family friend in Morden, south London, to continue her education.

Ms Badenoch – who spoke Yoruba before she spoke English – later said that she was “to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant”.

Enrolling at a local college to study A-levels, she also worked part-time at McDonald’s to support herself.

Having come from a solidly middle-class background with an assumption she would go on to become a doctor, it came as something of a shock to find herselft among working class youngsters of whom little was expected.

With her tutors seeking to deter her from applying for “things I wouldn’t get into”, she decided to study computer engineering at Sussex University.

The attitudes she encountered among the left-wing students – “snotty middle-class north Londoners who couldn’t get into Oxbridge” – helped drive her into conservative politics.

In particular, she was infuriated by the “high-minded” way they spoke about Africa, while understanding little about the realities of life on the continent.

“These stupid lefty white kids didn’t know what they were talking about,” she told The Times. “And that instinctively made me think ‘these are not my people’.”

On leaving university, she initially worked as a software engineer before moving into banking as an associate director at Coutts, later becoming a digital director at The Spectator magazine.

In 2005, at the age of 25, she joined the Conservative Party, citing Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and (perhaps more surprisingly) Airey Neave – who was assassinated by the INLA in 1979 – among her political heroes.

She stood unsuccessfully for the Labour-held Dulwich and West Norwood constituency in the 2005 general election but gained election to Westminster in the safe Tory seat of Saffron Walden in 2017.

An ardent Brexiteer, she made an immediate impression, describing the vote to leave the EU as “the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom” in her maiden speech and securing a place on the executive of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee.

When Boris Johnson became prime minister in 2019, he handed Ms Badenoch her first government role as junior minister for children and families.

Promoted to equalities minister, she created headlines with her outspoken defence of the controversial Sewell report, commissioned in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, which found the UK was not institutionally racist.

Her comments reflected a long-standing distrust of identity politics – she has complained at the way her three mixed race children with her banker husband, Hamish Badenoch, aree regarded solely as black.

Her rise through the ministerial ranks under Mr Johnson did not stop her joining the tidal wave of resignations, precipitated by the Chris Pincher scandal, which finally forced him out of No 10 in 2022.

Despite her relative inexperience, Ms Badenoch stood in the contest to succeed him as Tory leader, finishing a creditable fourth out of the eight candidates to make it on to the ballot paper, dramatically raising her profile in the process.

She was rewarded with promotion to Cabinet by the winner, Liz Truss, who made her international trade secretary – a post she retained under Rishi Sunak, who also gave her the women and equalities brief.

While publicly loyal during his premiership, Ms Badenoch was reported to have ripped into him following the Tories’ general election defeat, branding his decision to call a snap poll without consulting the Cabinet unconstitutional.

Launching her second leadership bid in two years, she argued they had “talked right but governed left” as she made her pitch for a smaller state with government doing “fewer things” but doing them with “brilliance”.

Ms Badenoch stirred further controversy with a newspaper article in which she stated that “not all cultures are equally valid” in that immigrants to the UK should “share our values and contribute to our society”.

It will now be for those party members who have for so long adored her to decide whether she can now be the leader to set them on the road back to power.

As Nigerians continue to grapple with the economic hardship resulting from record high inflation and the devastating impact of the economic reforms on their lives, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday, said it may be forced to demand from the federal government another review of the pay package of workers.

NLC President Joe Ajaero who disclosed this at the 8th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the National Association of Nigeria Nurses And Midwives (NANNM), also said that organised labour will insist that government keeps to it’s promise to re-commission the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries.

Ajaero lamented the rising cost of living in the country and the burden the average Nigerian has had to bear in carrying on with their daily lives.
He said: “As it is today, our choices are very limited. It is either we find a way to collectively overcome the forces that are bent on keeping us down as a people or we completely surrender to them while wringing our hands in hopelessness.

“The forces of neoliberalism must be challenged and the trade union movement remains the only viable force in Nigeria and in the world that can creatively engage it and mitigate its stranglehold on our nation.

“We must offer strong counterpoise to their prebendal logic and must proffer newer arguments to triumph over their quest for profit at the detriment of the social will. It is only by remaining strong and united that we can hope to achieve that,” he said.

The NLC president said that Nigerians cannot continue to suffer the vagaries of international oil market prices by sustaining the import of refined petroleum products whereas local refineries remain shut.

“It is sad, but we cannot afford to keep our public refineries shut while still importing refined petroleum products. We demand a review of our salaries in lieu of its eroded values.

‘’We must together demand the re-commissioning of Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries in keeping with the agreement we had with the federal government on the 5th day of October, 2023,” he added.

Ajaero advised the new leadership of the Nurses association to make protection of the members welfare a priority.

“We therefore counsel the leadership that will emerge today, remember that your role is critical to securing the welfare of our healthcare workers. True leadership transcends titles and positions; it is reflected in the impact you have on the lives of those you serve.

“Advocating for fair working conditions, championing healthcare workers’ rights, and striving for equity are not just duties—they are the marks of meaningful leadership,” he said.