— Says anyone promising restoration is playing politics
By Dayo Johnson Akure
The President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Babatunde Akinteye, has declared that politicians promising to restore fuel subsidy ahead of the 2027 elections are merely playing politics with the economic realities of the country.
Akinteye said fuel subsidy is no longer sustainable in Nigeria, stressing that the country had experimented with it for about four decades without achieving sustainable benefits.
Speaking with newsmen in Akure, the NANS President said the debate should now shift from restoration to how resources saved from subsidy removal could be effectively deployed to improve the lives of Nigerians, particularly students and youths.
“Nigeria has tried fuel subsidy for 40 years and it has failed. Every politician, every economist, everybody has said we cannot sustain the fuel subsidy,” he said.
“The argument should now be how Nigerians can follow up on the gains from subsidy removal and ensure the money saved is used for the benefit of all.
“We should not return to a system where a few people come together to benefit from what belongs to all of us.”
Akinteye said the fact that oil prices are high does not mean Nigeria should return to fuel subsidy, adding that no serious presidential candidate could sustainably reintroduce the policy.
“There is no presidential candidate, there is none of them that will come on board as president and return fuel subsidy because it is clearly not sustainable,” he declared.
He urged Nigerian students and youths to demand clear answers from political aspirants on how they intend to finance any proposed subsidy regime.
“We must say the truth to ourselves as Nigerians, Nigerian students and Nigerian youth. We must not say because we want something to be good, they should be clear where the money will come from to maintain the fuel subsidy,” he said.
The NANS President linked the current pressure on fuel prices to developments in the global oil market, including international conflicts.
He, however, cautioned Nigerians against using the current economic hardship as a reason to return to subsidy.
Akinteye said successive administrations had acknowledged the financial burden of subsidy, with governments previously resorting to borrowing to meet recurrent obligations.
He noted that the current approach of tying borrowing to specific projects was preferable.
Nigerians, he said should demand from politicians seeking to succeed President Bola Tinubu is a clear blueprint for investing subsidy savings in productive sectors.
The NANS President also commended programmes of the Tinubu administration, citing the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as an initiative providing tangible support to Nigerian students.
“For instance, you have seen some of the programmes the present administration is doing and one of them is NELFUND. That, me, clearly, I am supporting because I know what NELFUND is doing to Nigerian students,” he said.
Akinteye recalled that the decision to end fuel subsidy was not entirely new to the Tinubu administration, noting that the 2023 budget had provided for the termination of subsidy payments by June, before Tinubu assumed office.
He therefore dismissed campaign promises on subsidy restoration as political rhetoric detached from the country’s fiscal realities.
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