For as long as we can remember, being Nigerian at a petrol station meant one thing: queue, Long, sweaty, angry, sometimes overnight queues. We have slept in our cars. We have missed work. We have paid “omo onile” boys to hold our place. And after all that waiting, we would still buy fuel at rates that made you ask, “Is this the same country?”
Black market, hoarding, diversion. Extortion, that was the old normal. Before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s emergence, subsidy was draining our treasury, but the ordinary Nigerian on the street was still not smiling. We waited for hours, only to be forced to buy at ₦500, ₦600, ₦700 per litre from roadside sellers. The subsidy was not reaching us. The queues were not ending. The suffering was still ours.
Today, something is shifting. And it is time we paid attention, not with cynicism, but with open minds.
– The Move From Queue To Convenience
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPC, has begun deploying between 50 to 70 smart, self-service petrol stations across the country. This is a deliberate move to take us from the era of “conductor will come and collect money and maybe your fuel will not even be full” to a system where you serve yourself, pay digitally, and drive away in minutes.
This is not new to the world. In the US, UK, UAE, to mention few, self-service stations are standard. You pull in, swipe, pump, and go. No arguments. No waiting for hours. No “oga abeg abeg” to the pump attendant.
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👉 JOIN GISTSMATE WHATSAPP CHANNELTechnology is doing what protests and complaints could not do: remove human bottleneck and corruption from the process.
Under Tinubu’s reforms, the removal of fuel subsidy was painful, yes. But the goal was never to punish Nigerians. The goal was to free up money that was being stolen and mismanaged, and to force the sector to become efficient.
Self-service stations are one of the first fruits of that efficiency. Less human interference means less diversion, less adulteration, and less extortion.
– Why We Must Embrace It, Not Attack It
Nigeria has a pattern. A good initiative comes. We attack it first. We find 10 reasons it will fail before we give it one chance to work.
We did it with BVN. Today BVN is saving us from fraud.
We did it with TSA. Today government revenue is more transparent.
We did it with e-hailing. Today thousands of youths are employed.
The danger with these new smart stations is not the technology. The danger is us. If we vandalize the machines. If we refuse to learn how to use them. If we gather to protest “why is the government removing jobs” instead of asking “how can I benefit from this new system”, then we will kill the very thing that can make our lives easier.
Let us be honest: the old system was not working. The queues were not dignity. The extortion at the pump was not culture. Paying ₦1000 per litre to black marketers was not resilience. It was suffering.
Now we have a chance to join the rest of the world. A chance where a mother rushing to the hospital at 2am can fuel her car without begging an attendant. A chance where a business owner can budget properly because prices are more stable and dispensing is accurate.
– What This Reform Really Means*
1. Time is Money: The hours we waste in queues are hours we can use to work, study, or be with family. That is economic value.
2. Transparency: Self-service pumps with digital payment reduce under-dispensing and sharp practices. What you pay is what you get.
3. Jobs Will Evolve, Not Vanish: Attendants will be retrained as station supervisors, customer support, and maintenance technicians. Every tech shift creates new roles.
4. Signal to Investors*
: When Nigeria adopts global best practices, foreign and local investors take us seriously. More investment means more stations, more competition, and better prices in the long run.
– My Plea To My Fellow Nigerians
I know times are hard. I know any change that touches fuel touches everything. But let us not throw away the baby with the bathwater.
Do not attack the pump because it looks different. Learn it. Ask questions.
Do not spread videos of “this thing will not work” before you’ve tried it.
Do not assume the government wants to suffer you. Hold them accountable, yes. But also give reforms room to breathe.
Many initiatives in Nigeria fail not because they are badly built, but because we, the people, refuse to own them. We prefer to complain than to adapt. We prefer the devil we know.
This is our chance to break that cycle.
President Tinubu’s administration took a hard decision with subsidy removal. Now the follow-up is coming: infrastructure that matches a modern economy. Self-service stations are small, but they are symbolic. They tell us: “Nigeria can be like other countries. Nigeria can be convenient.”
– From Suffering To Solutions
The long queue has defined us for too long. It has defined our patience, our anger, and our wasted time.
Now the queue is shortening. The pump is in your hand. The power is shifting back to you, the consumer.
Let us embrace this. Let us hail what is good. Let us protect it, use it well, and demand that government expands it faster to all 36 states.
The journey from long queue to serve-yourself is not just about fuel. It is about mindset. It is about Nigeria deciding that we are tired of suffering and ready for systems that work.
So the next time you see a smart station, don’t curse it. Use it. Teach someone how to use it. Because the future we keep praying for will not come by miracle alone. It will come when we embrace the solutions in front of us.
Nigeria will work. But it will work when we work with it.
Ebenezer Olukayode Ogundele
Ibadan, Oyo state
ebenezerolukayode01@gmail.com
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