Fuel subsidy removal
Figures below refer to 31 May 2026 unless stated otherwise.
The claim
Petrol subsidy was removed on 29 May 2023. Fiscally it is defensible; on prices and on transparency it is not.
Figures
Petrol went from under ₦200/litre pre-removal to over ₦1,300/litre by mid-2026. NBS retail average May 2026: ₦1,596.25/litre, up 55.31% year on year from ₦1,027.76 in May 2025 and up 4.13% from ₦1,532.93 in April. Highest Edo ₦1,722.91, lowest Adamawa ₦1,469.83. Earlier 2026 path: January ₦1,034.76, February ₦1,051.47 (down 15.6% YoY), March ₦1,288.54. Depot prices eased again by 14 August 2026 — Dangote gantry ₦1,166/litre in Lagos. Claimed savings roughly $7.5bn (₦12tn) in 2024. Federal petroleum savings rose from ₦154bn to ₦836bn in Q1 2025.
The counter-argument
As of 30 July 2026 — over three years after removal — the federal government had still NOT published a line-item accounting of subsidy savings. Oyedele said savings were absorbed by Ways and Means obligations, debt service at 24% borrowing rates, the ₦70,000 minimum wage and NELFUND, but gave no figures. Marketers reported Nigerians cut petrol consumption by 22% in H1 2026 as pump prices nearly doubled. This is one of the weakest transparency files in the record.
Sources
- NBS via Legit — petrol ₦1,596.25 in May 2026legit.ng
- TheCable — three years of subsidy removalthecable.ng
- Vanguard — Oyedele on where the savings wentvanguardngr.com