Fuel subsidy: Let’s debate the real solution to Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis, By John Okiyi Kalu

The bigger picture includes: Food prices and agricultural productivity Exchange-rate depreciation Electricity costs and unreliable supply Transport Housing and rent High interest rates and expensive credit Unemployment and inadequate wages Insecurity Taxes, levies and multiple charges Poor infrastructure and logistics Healthcare and education costs Government debt and fiscal pressure Therefore, reinstating petrol subsidy is not a silver bullet.

There appears to be a growing tendency to present “subsidy reinstatement” as the solution to Nigeria’s economic hardship without explaining the price at which petrol would be sold, the annual fiscal cost, how the subsidy would be financed and, most importantly, how the government would prevent the corruption and rent-seeking that characterised the old regime.

It needs to make transport, electricity, food production and household incomes progressively less dependent on cheap petrol… That is the conversation I want to hear from serious presidential candidates in 2027.