By Sunday Ani
The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has advised Nigerians not to waste their tears over the recent increase in fuel pump price but to brace up for hard times ahead as the price would still go higher.
Noting that the current increase was only the beginning a series of increases to come, he argued that as long as the government continued to rely on market forces to determine the fuel price, the price would keep going up and Nigerians would continue to suffer and gnash their teeth.
According to him, President Bols Tinubu is currently using the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to artificially keep prices lower than they would be under true market conditions.
He warned that the strategy was unsustainable, given the NNPC’s financial struggles, including substantial debt.
Adebayo, who ran for president in 2023, had previously expressed concerns about the removal of the subsidy on petrol, predicting a sharp increase in petrol prices.
He added that removing the fuel subsidy on petrol was a misstep, one that would drive petrol prices to an unsustainable equilibrium. “I knew that one of the greatest mistakes you could ever make was to adopt a policy of removing the subsidy,” he said.
He had stated that market forces would inevitably push the price up, making it unaffordable for ordinary Nigerians.
His opposition to the removal of fuel subsidy stemmed from his belief that the true cost of subsidy removal far outweighs the financial burden it places on the government. He cited the impacts on productivity, social unrest and economic dislocation, as reasons he opposed the policy then. He is still arguing that when considering all the associated costs, maintaining the subsidy would have been the more prudent choice. According to him, the costs outweigh the savings from subsidy removal by a factor of five to one.
“If removal of subsidy is a good thing, then all of you should send a letter of congratulations to President Tinubu,” he stated, alluding to the widespread discontent following the subsidy removal.
He criticised President Bola Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, who all campaigned for removal of the fuel subsidy during their campaigns at the last election, insisting that he wouldn’t have removed subsidy if he was elected.
Adebayo said the fuel subsidy removal reflected an economic philosophy that placed the interests of the elite over the needs of ordinary Nigerians.
He decried the level of social inustice in Nigeria, stressing that while the political and business elite enjoy numerous subsidies for housing, vehicles and others, the subsidy on petrol, which benefits the broader population, was deemed problematic.
He, however, acknowledged the complexity of the issue and called for a systematic policy shift that would reduce Nigeria’s reliance on petrol. He pointed to alternative energy sources, such as electric vehicles, and urged the government to implement policies that would minimise the impact of rising fuel prices on ordinary Nigerians.
