Tinubu’s ‘Subsidy is Gone’ Declaration Fueled by Braggadocio — Ezekwesili

Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, says the removal of petrol subsidy was a necessary reform but was implemented poorly.

Speaking at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) 2025 conference in Enugu, Ezekwesili said President Bola Tinubu’s “subsidy is gone” declaration was driven by “braggadocio” rather than proper economic planning.

“As rightly said, the subsidy was skewing factors of production for us as an economy. Realigning those prices was important, but doing it the wrong way created distortionary effects that led to galloping inflation,” she said.

Ezekwesili noted that while liberalisation of petroleum pricing was essential, reforms of such magnitude required adequate preparation.

“What we ended up with was a good reform done the wrong way. It signalled poor decision-making across the economy and pushed the country into the inflationary situation we are in today,” she added, stressing that inflation “punishes the weakest population of any society.”

On May 29, 2023, Tinubu announced the end of the petrol subsidy. Despite repeated denials of its return, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited later disclosed that the federal government owes it N7.8 trillion for under-recovery.

Nigeria fully exited subsidy payments in October 2024, when deregulation pushed pump prices above N1,000 per litre at NNPC outlets.