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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Economy & Trade

2027: Makinde rejects subsidy and proposes cheaper domestic crude pricing

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Oyo State Governor and Allied Peoples Movement presidential candidate Seyi Makinde rejected restoring fuel subsidies ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 election.
  • He proposed pricing crude supplied to Nigerian refineries to reflect the country’s status as an oil producer, with the aim of reducing petrol costs.
  • Makinde said the benefit should enter the system through the domestic crude price rather than through a later, opaque intervention at petrol stations.

Seyi Makinde is rejecting a return to Nigeria’s former fuel subsidy regime, but says Nigerians should pay less for petrol through a different mechanism: cheaper domestic crude supplied to local refineries.

Speaking at the commissioning of the Allied Peoples Movement’s presidential campaign office in Abuja, the Oyo State governor and presidential candidate said his proposal did not call for restoring the old subsidy. Instead, he wants Nigerian crude priced in a way that reflects the country’s status as an oil-producing nation.

If a community grows food, the people of that community should not have to buy that food as though it travelled halfway around the world before reaching them.

· Seyi MakindeMakinde used the example to explain why Nigerian crude for domestic refineries should receive local pricing.

President Bola Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy at his May 29, 2023 inauguration. The decision pushed up the prices of goods and services, although the All Progressives Congress-led federal government has continued to argue that it produced substantial economic benefits. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who campaigned in 2023 on ending the subsidy, has now promised to restore it if elected in 2027.

So why should crude oil supplied to Nigerian refineries be priced as though Nigeria does not produce crude oil?

· Seyi MakindeHe argued that domestic crude pricing should reflect Nigeria’s status as an oil producer.

Makinde questioned why crude sent to Nigerian refineries should be priced as though it came from a country that does not produce oil. “If a community grows food, the people of that community should not have to buy that food as though it travelled halfway around the world before reaching them,” he said. “So why should crude oil supplied to Nigerian refineries be priced as though Nigeria does not produce crude oil?”

He said the country’s oil must deliver a “real and measurable benefit” to Nigerians. That benefit, he argued, should be built into the system through the price of crude supplied for domestic refining, rather than through an opaque intervention after other costs, inefficiencies and distortions have accumulated.

Nigeria’s oil must provide a real and measurable benefit to Nigerians.

· Seyi MakindeMakinde described the objective of his proposed petrol pricing framework.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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