14/07/2025
Stop the Spin: Nigerians Deserve Clarity — Not Conflicting CNG Statistics
In an era where transparency should be the fuel of progress, it’s deeply troubling that one of Nigeria’s most ambitious public sector programs — the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI) — has become a case study in statistical confusion and accountability fatigue.
At the center of this confusion is Mr. Michael Oluwagbemi, the Program Director of PCNGI, whose public statements over the past three months have introduced a rollercoaster of conflicting figures on CNG adoption, station rollout, and investment levels.
📊 A Timeline of Contradictions
Here’s a breakdown of what’s been reported — by Mr. Oluwagbemi himself — across various national media outlets:
April 7, 2025 (PUNCH):
$491 million invested; 30,000 vehicle conversions completed.
June 2, 2025 (BusinessDay):
Over $500 million attracted in 2024 alone; 255 conversion centers.
June 17, 2025 (PUNCH):
50,000 “CNG users,” with projections of 200,000 by year-end.
*
June 25, 2025 (PUNCH):
* 100,000 vehicles converted; $1 billion in projected annual investment.
July 10, 2025 (Daily Trust):
$800 million attracted in 9 months; target now $2.5 billion; 65 daughter stations, 175 in progress.
These inconsistencies are not just statistical slip-ups — they suggest a dangerous pattern of narrative engineering, where numbers are adjusted to suit the optics of the day, rather than reflect the state of the nation’s CNG transition.
🚨 The Ground Reality
Today, as I speak, the Nigerian CNG industry is in a state of existential crisis—teetering between bold potential and bureaucratic sabotage.
Since July 2024, when the PCNGI launched its much-publicized free CNG kit rollout, the real conversion numbers tell a sobering truth:
Fewer than 20,000 vehicles have been converted, despite massive allocations and glowing headlines.
The “10,000 conversions in 10 weeks” campaign collapsed under the weight of poor planning—birthing a black market that now rivals the official supply chain in both volume and velocity.
Meanwhile, the private sector has been gutted, squeezed between two choking forces: black market distortions and severe CNG gas shortages.
Investors who brought in thousands of kits and cylinders—some over 10,000 units since February—are now stuck, their inventory frozen as the market tilts toward chaos and uncertainty.
Let’s be clear:
The CNG sector is not soaring. It is gasping.
And while the system bleeds, press conferences and op-eds trumpet figures that change week to week, often contradicting prior statements by the same official.
🎯 What This Moment Demands
The stakes are high. Nigeria’s CNG transition is a vital national project. But progress must be measured in outcomes — not headlines.
A country cannot afford to inflate progress while the roads remain empty of results. The black market, stalled conversions , reverse conversions as a result of de-kiting due to lack of CNG gas are not aberrations — they are direct consequences of opacity and mismanagement.
We must hold those who lead our public programs accountable to the same standard of clarity and integrity we expect from every citizen and business. When public servants quote $1 billion in one breath and $491 million in the next — all within the same quarter — it raises not just eyebrows, but alarm bells.
