President Bola Tinubu has restated that he has no regrets about removing petrol subsidy in May 2023, emphasising that Nigeria cannot continue to be Father Christmas to neighbouring countries.
The former Lagos governor who stated this during the first presidential media chat televised Monday night, said removing petrol subsidy was in a bid to save generations to come, noting that the country was already spending its future while giving freebies to neighbouring countries.
Tinubu said petrol subsidy removal some 18 months ago have increased competition within the sector and that the pump price of petrol has gradually crashed.
“The market is being saturated. No monopoly, no oligopoly, a free market economy flowing,” he said. Questioned about the economic hardship following the subsidy removal, the President said he had no regret as the reform had become necessary.
He also knocked calls for the phased removal of subsidies, saying the nation was headed for financial disaster. With the subsidy removal, he said what was imperative was for Nigerians to manage within available resources and shun unnecessary expenses.
“What contingency? We were spending our future. We were spending our generations’ fortunes; we were not investing. We were just deceiving ourselves. That reform is necessary. I could see the smugglers fighting back; that doesn’t affect me. It affects smuggling. Why should you have expenditures that you don’t have revenue for? I don’t want to question people who have acquired limousine kind of vehicles on the road. We should teach management in all our programmes. We have to manage our resources within our means,” Tinubu stated.
“There is no way that you give out fuel and allow all the neighbouring countries as Father Christmas. I don’t have any regret whatsoever in removing the subsidy. It is necessary. We cannot spend our future generations’ investments upfront.
“Phased removal is part of unnecessary fear. No matter how you cut it, you still have to meet the bills. So cut your coat strictly to your size. Management is the issue and we have no choice but to pull the hand brakes, otherwise, we are headed for slippery slopes and in such financial disaster, not just for us, but for our children and grandchildren. Where is the pathway for prosperity?”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain also said he does not believe in price control and he won’t go that path. “I don’t believe in price control, we will work hard to supply the market,” he said.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, faces energy challenges, with all its state-owned refineries non-operational. The country is heavily reliant on imported refined petroleum products, with the state-run NNPC being the major importer of the essential commodities.
Fuel queues are commonplace in the country. Prices of petrol soared since the removal of subsidy in May 2023, from around N200/litre to over N1,000/litre, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
The government simultaneously unified forex windows, with the value of the naira nosediving terribly from $1/N700 to over $1/1600 at the parallel market.
Prices of food and basic commodities immediately climbed through the roof as Nigerians battled attendant inflation. The president, however, said he has no deliberate intention to subject Nigerians to pain, assuring that the benefits of the ongoing economic reforms would soon be felt by all.
