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Subsidy Removal Irreversible – Tinubu Tells Critics
President Bola Tinubu has declared that there is no going back on fuel subsidy removal, likening calls for its return to asking Moses to return to Egypt.
Tinubu spoke on Monday while addressing members of the City Boy Movement in Abuja, where he defended his economic reforms and insisted that retaining subsidy would bankrupt the nation.
“With your ideas, I came and I removed subsidy the first day. No, Nigeria will go bankrupt. There is nothing left to pay subsidy,” the President said.
He said he was aware that opposition figures were promising to restore subsidy if elected, but stressed that Nigeria must not reverse its economic direction.
“I listen to my political opponents promising a return to subsidy,” Tinubu said.
Drawing parallels from his scriptural studies of both the Bible and the Holy Quran, the President referenced how Moses (Musa) led the Israelites out of Egypt and how the Red Sea parted for them to cross.
“Most of all, sometimes I remember my scriptural studies, both in the Bible and in the Holy Koran. When Moses and Musa left Egypt, they faced the challenge and the Red Sea parted and gave way. You cannot ask Moses to go back to Egypt. We will campaign with ideas and original thoughts and deep thinking to move this country forward. With your energy, your support, never will we go back to Egypt,” he added.
Tinubu had announced the removal of petrol subsidy on his inauguration day, May 29, 2023, with his now-famous declaration that “fuel subsidy is gone” – a decision that led to sharp increase in pump price, transport fares and cost of living.
The policy has remained contentious, with opposition parties questioning the management of the reforms amid hardship.
Earlier this month, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, warned that restoring subsidy would push petrol price to at least N2,000 per litre and depreciate the naira to about N3,000 per dollar within months, further straining government revenue.
The Federal Government has also maintained that the recent intervention by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to cushion petrol price was not a return to subsidy regime.
