Former President Olusegun Obasanjo disclosed that the fuel subsidy, removed by the Federal Government in 2023, has been reinstated due to rising inflation.
Recall that during his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu declared that the fuel subsidy “is gone.”
This decision led to petrol prices skyrocketing from about N200 to over N600 per litre, worsening Nigeria’s economic crisis and plunging millions of citizens into excruciating hardship.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Obasanjo criticized the government’s abrupt removal of the subsidy, suggesting that preparatory measures should have been implemented.
“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 have removed is not gone. It has come back,” Obasanjo said.
He emphasized the importance of building investor confidence in Nigeria, adding, “You have to go from a transactional economy to a transformational economy.”
The ongoing nationwide protests have included demands for the reinstatement of the fuel subsidy regime, as reported by Daily Trust.
However, in his Sunday broadcast, Tinubu ruled out this possibility.
Describing the removal of the fuel subsidy as painful yet necessary, Tinubu argued it had been a “noose around the economic jugular of our Nation” and hindered economic development and progress.
