Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that the federal government has reinstated the fuel subsidy, which was removed in 2023 due to inflation concerns.
During his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu declared that the fuel subsidy “is gone,” leading to a significant increase in petrol prices from approximately N200 to over N600 per litre.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Obasanjo criticized the government's approach to removing the subsidy, arguing that proper measures should have been implemented beforehand. He noted that the subsidy has effectively returned due to the high 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.
Obasanjo also emphasized the importance of investor confidence in Nigeria, advocating for a shift from a transactional to a transformational economy.
The reinstatement of the fuel subsidy is among the demands of the ongoing nationwide protests. However, in a broadcast on Sunday, President Tinubu ruled out the possibility of returning the subsidy. He described the decision to remove it as painful but necessary, claiming it had been a “noose around the economic jugular of our nation” and had impeded economic development and progress.
