By M.O. Idam, Esq.
Today, on the issue of fuel subsidy removal, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can proudly wear the medal of a promise keeper albeit in rebellion.
Regardless of differing opinions, by removing the fuel subsidy, Mr. President fulfilled the collective — though arguably ill-thought-through — promise made by most of his fellow presidential hopefuls before winning the presidency. Indeed, nearly all of them openly favoured subsidy removal in spite of the faint, yet determined, resistance from sections of the public where I belong to.
Except one chooses the comfort of selective memory, only Omoyele Sowore consistently maintained that fuel subsidy, though fraudulent in structure, remained beneficial to ordinary Nigerians and therefore should not be removed, describing it as perhaps the only fraud from which the common people truly benefited.
Not even Peter Obi, who, though critical in tone, did not advocate the sustenance of fuel subsidy payments. In fact, like President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he repeatedly maintained that fuel subsidy would not survive beyond a day under his administration if elected. Whether he would have handled things differently after its removal remains uncertain. However, his public image — largely associated with prudence and frugality in the management of public funds — gives some weight to the assumption that he might have managed the proceeds more transparently than what many Nigerians perceive today.
Nevertheless, this is not to suggest that he had a fundamentally different option regarding subsidy removal itself. The economic realities confronting Nigeria had already made the policy increasingly unsustainable.
The real issue today is no longer whether subsidy should have been removed. That debate appears settled. The pressing question now is: Where are the savings from the subsidy removal going?
Nigerians were told that removing subsidy would free up enormous resources for critical sectors such as healthcare, education, infrastructure, security, and social welfare. Citizens endured the resulting hardship — soaring fuel prices, inflation, rising transportation costs, and declining purchasing power — largely on the understanding that the sacrifice would eventually translate into visible national development.
Yet, the average Nigerian still struggles to identify tangible evidence of the supposed subsidy savings in their daily lives. Hunger has deepened, businesses continue to collapse under economic pressure, and the cost of living keeps rising.
If subsidy removal was necessary, then accountability for the funds saved is equally necessary.
The presidency owes Nigerians a clear and transparent account of the funds saved from fuel subsidy removal; otherwise, in many minds, it will remain a fraud cured only to serve a bigger fraud.
M. O. Idam
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
