The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has faulted the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi’s proposal to restore petrol subsidy if elected, arguing that President Bola Tinubu’s removal of the subsidy has already addressed the corruption associated with the system.
Oyedele stated this during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he defended and justified the Federal Government’s 30-day petrol price discount.
Obi had recently pledged to restore petrol subsidy after tackling corruption if elected president in 2027.
However, Oyedele questioned the logic of the proposal, arguing that restoring subsidy would risk reintroducing the same problems the current administration sought to eliminate.
“With what Mr President has done, he has removed the corruption. So would you bring the corruption back so that you can fight it, remove it, and then bring back subsidy? It’s not adding up,” the minister said.
Oyedele also dismissed suggestions that petrol prices could be substantially reduced to between N400 and N1,000 per litre without addressing the underlying costs of production and refining.
“You cannot cut the price of petrol to N400, not N500, not N800, not N1000. It’s simple arithmetic. What are the inputs?” he asked.
He explained that refining was a low-margin business that depended largely on high production volumes, making it difficult for operators to sustain significant price reductions without a corresponding reduction in costs.
Responding to a question about why crude oil produced in Nigeria could not be supplied to domestic refiners at lower prices, Oyedele said crude oil production involved several costs and contractual obligations.
He noted that crude oil revenue was shared among production costs, international oil companies, royalties and profit oil, meaning that the country could not treat all its output as freely available for domestic use.
“The fact that you have 1.8 million barrels plus constantly condensate a day does not mean that all of it is available for you to give to anyone,” he said.
The minister warned that selling crude oil below market prices to support cheaper petrol would reduce government revenue and potentially affect its ability to meet obligations, including salary payments.
He also argued that maintaining artificially low domestic fuel prices could encourage cross-border smuggling and distort the market.
According to Oyedele, Nigeria’s petrol consumption had previously approached 90 million litres daily, but not all the fuel was consumed within the country.
He cited protests in Cameroon following Tinubu’s removal of petrol subsidy as an indication of how differences in fuel prices could affect neighbouring countries.
Oyedele further argued that even the United States had not been able to secure its borders completely, questioning the feasibility of relying on border enforcement alone to prevent the diversion of subsidised petrol.
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