ABUJA, Sept. 29– Nigerian opposition presidential candidate Peter Obi has vowed to restore fuel subsidy if elected in the January 2027 general elections, saying the country could afford to subsidize petrol if corruption and leakages in the system were eliminated.
Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), a political party in Nigeria founded in 2026, pledged while addressing supporters in Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria, during his campaign tour on Monday. “People are talking about subsidy, but what it is all about is corruption,” Obi said, drawing applause from supporters.
“By removing the corruption, I assure you that we will bring back the subsidy.” His pledge puts the politically sensitive petrol subsidy issue at the center of the 2027 presidential contest, more than three years after President Bola Tinubu ended the decades-old subsidy regime on the day he took office.
In his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, Tinubu announced the end of the petrol subsidy regime, under which the government absorbed part of the cost of petrol to keep pump prices below market levels. His administration has defended the decision as necessary to address the country’s fiscal pressures.
The removal of the subsidy pushed up petrol prices and contributed to higher transportation and living costs, while the government introduced measures including cash transfers, cheaper public transport initiatives and other interventions to cushion the impact on households.
Before its removal, the subsidy had also been a subject of controversy, with some analysts citing uncertainty over actual fuel consumption and the smuggling of subsidized petrol into neighboring countries. The country’s oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, had previously said the subsidy burden had reached trillions of naira.
Tinubu’s administration has maintained that ending the subsidy strengthened public finances and freed resources for other priorities. The Nigerian government has also said this year that the reform helped avert a fiscal crisis. Obi said an NDC administration would tackle corruption across the government and economy.
He also criticized the economic conditions facing Nigerians and pledged to deploy the country’s resources to improve security, education and other sectors. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
