President Bola Tinubu has ruled out reversing Nigeria's fuel subsidy removal, comparing calls to restore the policy to asking the biblical figure Moses to return to Egypt. Addressing members of the City Boy Movement on Monday, Tinubu insisted the country cannot afford to continue bearing the cost of subsidies and risked bankruptcy if it did so. "With your ideas, I came and I removed subsidy the first day. No, Nigeria will go bankrupt. There is nothing left to pay subsidy," the President said. He acknowledged that his political opponents had promised to restore the subsidy but said Nigeria must not return to its previous economic path.
Drawing on religious teachings, Tinubu referenced both biblical and Quranic accounts of Moses and Musa leading the Israelites out of Egypt to argue against reversing course on economic policy. "When Moses and Musa left Egypt, they faced the challenge and the Red Sea parted and gave way. You cannot ask Moses to go back to Egypt," he said. He committed to campaigning with "ideas and original thoughts and deep thinking" to advance the country without returning to subsidy payments.
Tinubu removed the petrol subsidy on his inauguration day, May 29, 2023, declaring that "fuel subsidy is gone". The decision raised petrol prices and increased the cost of transportation and other goods and services, becoming a major point of contention as Nigerians face rising living costs. Opposition figures and other political actors have questioned aspects of the government's economic reforms in response.
The Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, warned earlier this month that restoring petrol subsidy could push pump prices to at least 2,000 naira per litre and weaken the naira to around 3,000 per dollar within months. He argued that subsidy payments would create additional pressure on government revenue and economic stability. The Federal Government has also defended a recent intervention by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to cushion rising petrol prices, stating it was not a reversal of the subsidy-removal policy.
For savers and borrowers, the continued absence of fuel subsidies means the government can allocate funds to other priorities, though rising fuel and transportation costs continue to affect the overall cost of living and business operations.