Former President Olusegun Obasanjo revealed the federal government has reinstated the fuel subsidy, removed in 2023 due to inflation.
President Bola Tinubu, during his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, declared that the fuel subsidy “is gone.” The development has resulted in an increase in petrol prices from approximately N200 to more than N600 per litre.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Obasanjo faulted how the subsidy was removed by the government.
According to him, the government should have implemented some measures before the subsidy removal.
He, however, explained that the subsidy has “come back” due to the inflation rate.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Not just wake up one morning and say you removed the subsidy. Because of inflation, the subsidy that we removed is not gone. It has come back,” Obasanjo said.
He also highlighted the need for investor confidence in Nigeria, stating, “You have to go from a transactional economy to a transformational economy.”
One of the demands of the ongoing nationwide protest is the reinstatement of the fuel subsidy regime.
But Tinubu, in his Sunday broadcast, ruled out the possibility of returning the fuel subsidy.
He described the decision to remove the fuel subsidy as painful but necessary, while arguing that it had been a “noose around the economic jugular of our nation” and had hindered economic development and progress.
