Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has said he would restore fuel subsidy if elected president in the 2027 general elections.
Sowore argued that contrary to the federal government’s claim that fuel subsidy has been removed, the government is still subsidising petrol but has simply changed the name attached to the policy.
He also accused the government of secretly subsidising the naira through measures aimed at supporting the currency’s value against the dollar.
Sowore made the remarks on Tuesday while speaking on ARISE News, where he outlined what he described as an alternative approach to tackling Nigeria’s economic crisis.
Responding to questions on whether he would reintroduce fuel subsidy if elected, Sowore said the argument that subsidy had been completely removed was misleading.
“In the first place, they are still paying subsidy. They’re just changing the name of what they call it,” he said.
According to him, the government is subsidising petrol because Nigeria does not produce enough locally, while also supporting the naira through interventions in the foreign exchange market.
“They are subsidising not only petrol, because they don’t have enough and they can’t produce locally. They’re also subsidising the Naira,” Sowore said.
He argued that the government had failed to be transparent about the measures being used to support the naira, insisting that the exchange rate was being influenced through what he described as a hidden subsidy.
“That’s one thing they will never tell you. The reason the Naira is at a certain rate to a dollar is because it’s been quietly and secretly subsidised,” he said.
Sowore acknowledged that countries routinely take measures to defend their currencies but questioned why the government would deny that such interventions amounted to subsidy.
He also defended the principle of subsidies, arguing that the problem in Nigeria was not necessarily subsidy itself but the manner in which public resources were distributed.
“There’s no country in the world that don’t subsidise their poor,” he said, adding that wealthy Nigerians and businesses were benefiting more from government incentives than ordinary citizens.
According to him, importers and businesses benefiting from customs waivers were receiving a form of subsidy that was significantly more valuable than the relief previously enjoyed by consumers through cheaper petrol.
“In fact, the people that get the most subsidy in Nigeria is not the poor, it’s the rich,” Sowore said.
He further argued that the removal of fuel subsidy had contributed to the worsening economic conditions in the country, particularly through its impact on the naira and household purchasing power.
“You saw what happened, immediately you remove subsidy. Look at where your economy tanked. Your Naira also went down the toilet,” he said.
Sowore said that if elected, his administration would seek to move away from what he described as economic policies that had normalised poverty in Nigeria.
He said the country needed to abandon the “old mentality” responsible for policies that had made poverty increasingly widespread.
“There’s no need for us to sit down here and ask, ‘Oh, what would you do differently?’ Of course, what we have to do differently, first and foremost, is to get rid of this old mentality and the ideas that brought poverty to become a standard, you know, a household name in Nigeria,” he said.
