By Faith Anisiobi, The Sight News
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has cautioned against calls for the restoration of petrol subsidy, warning that such a move could weaken Nigeria’s improving fiscal position, undermine investor confidence and reverse gains recorded under the economic reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Idris made the position known in an opinion article published on Monday, August 24, 2026, in some national newspapers, titled “Restoring Fuel Subsidy Will Reverse Nigeria’s Economic Gains.”
The Minister said reintroducing the subsidy would return the country to the fiscal pressures, market distortions, fuel scarcity and arbitrage incentives associated with the previous subsidy regime.
“Restoring subsidy would almost instantly return Nigeria to the economic conditions of 2022, recreating the same fiscal pressures, distortions, scarcity and incentives for arbitrage that made the old system unsustainable,” he said.
Idris said Nigerians must also consider the opportunity cost of restoring the subsidy, particularly its potential impact on funding for infrastructure, education, healthcare, security and social programmes.
“Do we restore petrol subsidies, or sustain student loans and consumer credit for young Nigerians? Do we restore subsidies, or preserve higher allocations to states and local governments? Do we restore subsidies, or continue funding roads, rail, power and security?” he asked.
He recalled that Nigeria spent about $10 billion on fuel subsidies in 2022 amid declining oil production and weak government revenues.
According to him, the World Bank had at the time warned that the subsidy was consuming resources that could otherwise have been deployed to education, healthcare, infrastructure and social protection.
Citing the Federal Government’s Nigeria’s Reform Scorecard: The Benefits, Costs and Harms Prevented, Idris said the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Taiwo Oyedele, disclosed that subsidy savings had mobilized ₦15.8 trillion in resources for the Federation between June 2023 and December 2025.
He explained that the amount comprised approximately ₦5.43 trillion for the Federal Government, ₦6.52 trillion for states and ₦3.88 trillion for local governments.
Idris clarified that the ₦15.8 trillion did not represent a separate pool of cash, but resources released within the Federation’s broader fiscal system as a result of subsidy reform.
He said the additional fiscal space had strengthened the capacity of states and local governments to meet salary and pension obligations and invest in essential services, while enabling increased federal spending on infrastructure, security, agriculture and human capital development.
The Minister added that the Reform Scorecard recorded about ₦6.47 trillion in additional expenditure on strategic infrastructure, as well as more than ₦400 billion committed to major social investment initiatives, including the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund (MREIF) and CREDICORP.
He also noted that social transfers had reached more than 10 million Nigerian households.
However, Idris warned that the government was still shouldering significant energy-related subsidies, noting that electricity subsidy was estimated at ₦3.14 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025.
He argued that restoring petrol subsidies would therefore place an additional strain on public finances.
The Minister said the Organized Private Sector and other stakeholders in the economy had also cautioned against reversing the reforms.
“Nigeria cannot build tomorrow’s economy by returning to yesterday’s unsustainable subsidy regime. We have moved beyond that model,” Idris said.
He urged Nigerians to assess the reforms from the perspective of long-term economic stability, fiscal sustainability and the need to build a stronger and more productive economy.
