Former Anambra State Governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has backed the Federal Government’s decision to remove petrol subsidy, saying the policy was necessary despite the hardship and public dissatisfaction it has generated.
Obi made the position known during a panel session at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, where he argued that the subsidy regime was unsustainable and had to be discontinued.
The former governor noted that his campaign manifesto had similarly proposed the removal of petrol subsidy, stressing that the decision to eliminate it was economically necessary.
According to him, the controversy should not be about whether subsidy removal was right or wrong, but about how the funds saved from the policy have been managed.
Obi, however, criticised the Bola Tinubu administration for what he described as poor management and deployment of the savings and additional revenues generated from the subsidy removal.
He alleged that the funds were being mismanaged, stolen and wasted instead of being channelled into critical sectors capable of improving citizens’ welfare.
The former governor argued that the government could have invested a substantial portion of the savings in healthcare and other productive sectors or placed the funds in the sovereign wealth fund to generate sustainable returns for the country.
He maintained that the removal of subsidy should have been accompanied by clear, transparent and well-structured measures capable of cushioning its impact on Nigerians.
Obi said the failure to demonstrate tangible benefits from the funds generated by the policy had contributed to public dissatisfaction with the reform.
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He stressed that while subsidy removal was the right economic decision, the government had a responsibility to ensure that the resulting savings were transparently managed and invested in areas that directly improve the lives of Nigerians.
The NDC candidate’s position places him in agreement with the core policy direction of the Tinubu administration on subsidy removal, while sharply differing with the government over the management of the financial resources generated by the reform.
