May 29, 2023, right there at the Eagle Square, in a historic moment watched globally, another successful transition from one democratically elected president to another took place. The newly sworn-in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced, rather unceremoniously: “Subsidy is gone forever.”
A widely cited BusinessDay analysis, based on NNPC and NEITI data, puts petrol subsidy spending under Goodluck Jonathan at about N3.9 trillion, while President Buhari’s administration recorded over N11 trillion — roughly three times what the Jonathan administration spent on petrol subsidy.
The irony is that, in January 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan’s attempt to remove the subsidy was strongly resisted by the NLC, TUC, the organised private sector, civil society groups and religious organisations, with notable religious leaders at the forefront. The country was virtually under siege, and economic activities were paralysed.
President Buhari also showed some inclination towards subsidy removal and, at some point, promised to eliminate the subsidy or completely dismantle the cabal around it. But when he got to office, history proved otherwise. Available records show that Nigeria was further submerged in the subsidy mess.
