…reversing the removal of the subsidy would be a step in the wrong direction. It would restore the fiscal burden, revive the price differential that encouraged smuggling and arbitrage, and weaken incentives for efficient domestic refining. More fundamentally, it would address the immediate price of petrol, while leaving the structural weaknesses that produced the wider economic problem largely untouched.
I have followed with considerable interest the continuing debate over Nigeria’s economic reforms, particularly the arguments surrounding the removal of the petrol subsidy and the direction of economic policy under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Such debate is necessary. Government policy must remain open to scrutiny, especially when its consequences are felt directly in the daily lives of citizens.
It was against this background that I viewed Professor Bongo Adi’s recent intervention on Nigeria’s growth trajectory, including his reference to the Rule of 70. Professor Adi is an economist whose contribution to public discourse I respect. The mathematical rule he cited is quite straightforward. It provides an estimate of the time required for a quantity to double when a constant growth rate is assumed. So, for instance, an economy growing at a constant rate of 4 per cent annually will take 17.5 years to double its size.
