Presidential candidates Peter Obi and Omoyele Sowore have rejected former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s proposal to reinstate petrol subsidy if he wins the 2027 presidential election.
Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, maintained that removing the subsidy was necessary, stressing that poor management and alleged diversion of the proceeds by successive administrations should not justify reversing the policy.
The former Anambra State governor made the remarks on Monday at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, while responding to the debate generated by Atiku’s position.
“I subscribe and I maintain that we need to remove subsidy. Mismanagement of the proceeds should not be the reason for not removing it,” Obi said.
He argued that the government ought to have implemented measures to reduce the burden of subsidy removal on Nigerians, while directing the resulting savings towards productive areas of the economy.
Obi said the funds generated from the policy had not been properly utilised, alleging that the resources were also being “mismanaged and stolen.”
He recalled that he had proposed a more structured process for removing the subsidy and explained his position in his manifesto before the 2023 presidential election.
“I will do it in an organised manner and whatever we recover would be invested appropriately,” he said.
Sowore, the African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, similarly opposed a return to the previous subsidy arrangement, but contended that the policy’s removal had mainly favoured state governors and members of the elite rather than ordinary Nigerians.
Speaking at the NBA conference, he challenged the authorities to explain who had actually benefited from repeated efforts to eliminate petrol subsidy.
“If there is anybody that has been consistent in the removal of fuel subsidy, it has been me. The question about fuel subsidy is: who are you subsidising? You are subsidising the elite. You are subsidising the governors. The only people who are doing well since the removal of fuel subsidy are the governors of states,” Sowore said.
He criticised successive administrations for repeatedly declaring an end to petrol subsidy without addressing the fundamental challenges associated with the policy.
According to Sowore, petrol remains the key subsidised commodity with a direct bearing on the lives of ordinary Nigerians, making transportation policy an important part of the broader subsidy debate.
He added: “I was a student in 1988. In 1999, they removed subsidy. We are in 2026; they are still removing subsidy. They are robbing Peter Obi to pay Bola Tinubu. That is what the removal of subsidy is all about. The poor people of this country only benefit from subsidy on petrol, gasoline. There is no subsidy on kerosene. What did they build with it? When it comes to subsidy, transportation policy is important,” he said.
