Tinubu’s Fuel Subsidy Gamble: Nigerians Paid the Price, Now Atiku Offers a Way

Three years after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared that “fuel subsidy is gone,” Nigerians are still waiting for the promised improvement in daily life. The central question, according to Paul Ibe, is whether households are better off than they were before the policy. His answer is unequivocal: no.

The article describes an economy far removed from official conference rooms and government statistics. Market traders are losing more of their profits to transport costs. Civil servants see their salaries disappear within days. Young graduates struggle to find work, while small manufacturers face sharply higher diesel, petrol, electricity and financing costs. Families are also cutting the amount and quality of food they serve their children.

The cost pressures are reflected in figures cited from Reuters. Petrol prices are roughly six times higher than before subsidy removal, while the cost of preparing a basic jollof rice meal has more than doubled since Tinubu took office. The article says investor optimism around the government’s reforms has not eased the cost-of-living crisis faced by ordinary Nigerians.

Ibe acknowledges that the former subsidy system was expensive, corruption-prone and vulnerable to politically connected middlemen. But he rejects the idea that Nigeria had to choose between preserving that system and forcing households to absorb the full shock of its removal. He presents a production-based subsidy as an alternative designed to support Nigerian refineries, employment and consumers.

That argument gives Atiku Abubakar’s proposal a place in the debate over the reform. Tinubu has said subsidy removal saved Nigeria from imminent bankruptcy and created a foundation for economic recovery. The article’s challenge is whether protecting government finances required such a heavy loss of household purchasing power.

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fuel subsidy is gone