says the country must not return to its previous economic path
President Bola Tinubu compared calls to bring back fuel subsidies to asking Moses to return to Egypt. He told supporters Nigeria simply cannot keep paying for it.
He made the point Monday in a speech to the City Boy Movement. Keep bearing that cost, he said, and the country would risk going bankrupt.
“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 knows his opponents have promised to restore the subsidy. Yet he insisted the country must not slide back to the old way of doing things.
“I listen to my political opponents promising a return to subsidy,” he said.
Tinubu pulled an example from the Bible and the Quran. He recalled how Moses and Musa led the Israelites out of Egypt. The story shows why reversing course now makes no sense, he argued.
“Most of all, sometimes I remember my scriptural studies, both in the Bible and in the Holy Koran. 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. We will campaign with ideas and original thoughts and deep thinking to move this country forward. With your energy, your support, never will we go back to Egypt,” Tinubu added.
He ended the petrol subsidy on his first day in office. That was May 29, 2023, when he declared “fuel subsidy is gone.” Petrol prices jumped right away. So did the cost of transport and most goods and services.
The decision has stayed at the center of argument as living costs squeeze Nigerians. Opposition voices and other politicians keep challenging parts of the government’s economic reforms.
In a related development, Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele warned earlier this month that restoring the subsidy could drive pump prices to at least N2,000 per litre. The naira might weaken to about N3,000 per dollar within months. He said the extra payments would add fresh pressure on government revenue and the wider economy.
The Federal Government has defended a recent move by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to soften the blow of higher petrol prices. Officials insist the step does not amount to reversing the subsidy.
