The Bright Side Of Fuel Subsidy Removal

By Haruna Lawal

On May 29th 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made a powerful statement: “The fuel subsidy is gone” and such statements have being followed with action hence, fuel price across our nation have increased astronomically.

Critics and opposition have dwelled on the negatives but as critical thinkers and patriots we must focus on the positive outcomes that are certain to happen as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy.

The removal of fuel subsidy has brought to an end an organised corruption in the downstream sector of Nigerian oil and gas. No one will artificially increase our daily consumption of fuel, the smuggling of our subsidised petrol to neighboring countries is over and even the hoarding of petroleum resources is completely obliterated. Watch out as our demand for petrol goes down.

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The importation of petroleum products no doubt consumes a lot of our scarce forex, as demand goes down, the pressure on our forex will go down and it automatically means a stronger Naira. As the Naira becomes stronger, Nigeria becomes richer and more economically viable.

A stronger Naira and also the cost savings of the money used to pay subsidies can be used to fund other critical infrastructure and human capital important to the growth and development of Nigeria. Removing subsidy means Nigeria has chosen to fund production at the expense of consumption.

Better days lie ahead, let’s unite and beef up our patriotism to build a better Nigeria.

Haruna Lawal Writes from Kaduna state.