…..says fuel Is “Life Itself” in Nigeria

By Onu Okorie

Amist ₦15.8 trillion subsidy removal windfall in two years, claimed by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, a public policy analyst and University of Lagos academic, Professor Kayode Emperor has questioned the justification for removing petrol subsidy in an economy where Nigerians remain heavily dependent on fuel for basic services.
The Minister who spoke in Abuja at a media conference organised by the Federal Ministry of Finance presented a scorecard titled “Nigeria’s Reform Scorecard: Benefits, Costs & Harms Prevention.”
The government’s scorecard reported ₦30.64 trillion in incremental Federal Government expenditure during the period. Of this, ₦9.39 trillion was spent on wage adjustments, minimum wage increases and allowances for public servants, while ₦9.37 trillion went towards external debt servicing. Another ₦6.5 trillion was committed to strategic infrastructure.
“The incremental amount that the Federal Government spent paying higher wages is more than the entire savings that the Federal Government earned from subsidy removal,” Oyedele said.
He maintained that the figures demonstrated improved public financial management rather than an attempt to introduce the reforms merely to raise revenue.
The scorecard assessed 25 economic indicators across five areas: fiscal sustainability, external stability, investment climate, social impact, and growth and productivity.
It compared Nigeria’s economic position in May 2023 with the latest available data and a projected “no-reform” scenario, which the government said illustrated what could have happened if the previous subsidy regime, multiple exchange rates and heavy dependence on deficit financing had continued.
On social welfare, the government pointed to improved capacity by states to meet salary and pension obligations, the increase in the national minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000, student loans benefiting more than 1.5 million students, cash transfers to vulnerable households, subsidised mortgages and agricultural interventions.
The government also cited improvements in several macroeconomic indicators.
However, Emperor argued that subsidy, properly designed and administered, is not inherently an economic evil but a policy instrument used globally to reduce the burden of essential goods and services on citizens.
“Subsidy, world over, is a positive concept. It is created to reduce personal burden on items that are considered critical to people’s lives,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria’s peculiar infrastructure deficit makes petrol particularly critical because citizens and businesses rely on fuel not only for transportation but also for electricity, water supply, refrigeration, healthcare and commercial activities.
He noted that the collapse of public water supply in many parts of the country has forced households to drill boreholes and depend on electricity or petrol-powered generators to pump water.
“In Nigeria, fuel is food and more than food. It is, in fact, life itself, without which no one functions,” Emperor said.
He therefore questioned why an oil-producing country that has failed to provide reliable electricity and other basic infrastructure should not consider subsidising fuel for its citizens.
The analyst also criticised the argument that subsidy was largely benefiting so-called “cabals” and neighbouring countries, asking why those alleged leakages were not addressed directly rather than transferring the burden to ordinary Nigerians.