Lines of cars and trucks snaking around blocks in the center of the Nigerian capital, Abuja, highlight the state’s failure to fix a problem that’s bedeviled Africa’s biggest oil producer for decades: fuel shortages.
A new round of gasoline scarcity that’s gripped Africa’s most populous nation since December comes at a bad time for President Muhammadu Buhari’s government. During his campaign to win office in 2015, he promised to solve the problem. With three years of his four-year tenure gone and elections looming next year, there’s little sign he will.
