President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,precisely in May, 2023 made a bold but careless pronouncement : “Subsidy is gone.” With that single move, Nigeria’s decades-old fuel subsidy regime came to an end while throwing millions of Nigerians into momentary panic. While the policy was praised internationally, especially from the IMF and world bank as “reformative,” many Nigerians are still asking: Has this move helped the common man, or made life worse?
In a bid to get some raw answers to that question, we hit the streets, combed through economic data, and listened to voices from across Nigeria to some insights to that question.
1. What Really Was this Fuel Subsidy, and Why Remove It?
The fuel subsidy was a government program that kept petrol prices artificially low by stepping in to pay substantially some amount of money to keep the petrol price relatively affordable for Nigerians. For decades, it drained Nigeria’s budget — over ₦4 trillion in 2022 alone. This was heavily due to corruption ridden tendencies saddled with those handling the project.
By removing it, the Bola Tinubu administration hoped to:
- Work on Reducing government spending
- Try Stabilizing the economy
- Encourage investment in refineries
But the transition was brutal and not thought through enough. The resultant effect of this led to Petrol prices tripling in a week. Transportation, food, and rent all went up almost immediately.
2. What Are the Responses of Nigerians on the Streets
We spoke randomly to ordinary citizens across Lagos, Enugu, Kano, and Port Harcourt. Here’s some snippets of what they’re saying :
“I used to fill my tank with less than ₦10,000 before this infamous announcement, Now it’s over ₦20,000 which has affected grossly my daily income. My delivery business is dying.”
— Musa Bello, Uber driver, Lagos.
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“No light, no fuel, no food. What are we surviving on?, the poverty in the land is bitting harder. ”
— Ifeanyi, mechanic, Imo.
“The policy is good, but they should have prepared the minds of the people better before removing it. Palliatives that the government promised are not reaching us.”
— Stella, teacher, Lagos
3. The Economic Numbers: Progress or Pain?
According to the National Bureau of Statistics:
The Inflation rose to over 30% by mid-2025 before the current data rebasing.
Food prices have nearly tripled in most states. The issue of Unemployment is rising as small businesses struggle to survive. Majority of the Manufacturing companies are shutting down with some foreign companies leaving the country.
However, foreign reserves have slightly improved and Nigeria has reportedly attracted some interest from global investors. Although, none has materialized in reality.
4. What the Government Says?
The Tinubu administration claims the fuel subsidy regime was unsustainable which made them yank it off.
He further claimed that the new tax policies and investment schemes will create long-term gains.
They also made a bogus claim that Over ₦500 billion has been saved since the removal. A claim the citizens are finding hard to believe due to massive borrowing ongoing by the same government claiming to have saved money.
Bola Tinubu has in turn promised the provision of CNG Mass transit buses, ₦8,000 monthly to vulnerable households (though paused) due to so much corruption.
Local refinery revival (especially Dangote) which didn’t materialize aside the private refinery of Dangote. Infact, all the local refineries have all gone moribund after gulping so much turn around maintenance money.
But, many Nigerians remain skeptical — the “suffering now, gain later” narrative is hard to accept when daily survival is at stake with more people being plunged into more poverty.
5. So,who’s Really Benefiting from this policy ?
Who It’s Helping: To a larger extent, it’s highly beneficial to
- Government finances
- Large investors
- Fuel importers
- Policy think-tanks
Who It’s Hurting: obviously, this policy is dangerously hurting :
- Working-class Nigerians
- Small business owners
- Transport and logistics workers
- Families living below ₦1000/day
In Conclusion, it would nice to note that, Tinubu’s subsidy removal may be economically sound on paper, but the street and actual reality is clear: poor Nigerians are paying the price, literally. The average poor man in the street is finding it so hard to survive whilst the politicians feed fat.
Same Bola Tinubu who asked Nigerians to tighten their belts has been seen feeding fat, spending lavishly on law makers, judiciary and private expenses while leaving citizens to suffer in penury.
Until palliatives are effective and local fuel production takes off, the benefits remain a distant promise in a country so blessed as Nigeria.
