The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has criticised the Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Peter Obi, over his pledge to bring back petrol subsidy if elected in 2027, insisting that President Bola Tinubu’s removal of the subsidy has already ended the corruption linked to it.
Oyedele spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he also defended the Federal Government’s 30-day petrol price discount.
Obi had recently promised to restore the subsidy after first dealing with corruption in the system.
Oyedele questioned the logic of that approach, saying it would amount to reviving the very problems the present administration set out 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,” he said.
The minister also rejected claims that pump prices could drop to between N400 and N1,000 per litre without a matching fall in production and refining costs. “It’s simple arithmetic. What are the inputs?” he asked.
He explained that refining is a thin-margin business which relies on high volumes, so operators cannot absorb deep price cuts unless their costs also come down.
Asked why Nigeria’s crude could not be sold to local refiners at lower prices, Oyedele said the nation’s output is shared among production costs, international oil companies, royalties and profit oil. Because of this, he said, not all of it is 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.
Oyedele warned that selling crude below market rates to subsidise cheaper petrol would cut government revenue and could hamper its ability to meet obligations such as salaries.
He added that artificially low fuel prices would encourage smuggling across borders and distort the market.
He noted that daily petrol consumption in Nigeria had once neared 90 million litres, though not all of it was used within the country.
Pointing to protests in Cameroon after Tinubu scrapped the subsidy, he said price gaps could affect neighbouring countries.
The minister further argued that even the United States has not managed to seal its borders fully, casting doubt on the idea that border enforcement alone could stop subsidised fuel from being diverted.
