Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, says fuel subsidy removed by the Federal Government in 2023 has been reintroduced as a result of inflation.
President Bola Tinubu had during his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, declared that fuel subsidy “is gone.”
This announcement has resulted in the increase of petrol price from about N200 to over N600 per litre.
Obasanjo, in an interview with the Financial Times, picked holes in the manner in which the subsidy was removed by the President Tinubu-led administration.
The former president argued that the government should have implemented some measures before removing fuel the subsidy.
But he claimed that the subsidy has “come back” due to the 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 have removed is not gone. It has come back,” Obasanjo said.
He also highlighted the need for investor confidence in Nigeria, stating, “You have to go from a transactional economy to a transformational economy.”
One of the key demands of those behind the ongoing nationwide protest is the reinstatement of the fuel subsidy regime.
But in his Sunday broadcast, Tinubu ruled out the possibility of returning fuel subsidy.
He said the decision to remove the fuel subsidy was painful but necessary.
He argued that it had been a “noose around the economic jugular of our Nation,” which had hindered economic development and progress.
