Tunji-Ojo: Tinubu would’ve been breaking law if he retained fuel subsidy

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of interior, says President Bola Tinubu could not have retained petrol subsidy because there was no budgetary provision for it when his administration came on board.

Speaking on Monday during a panel session at the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), where he shared the stage with Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, Tunji-Ojo said paying subsidy without appropriation would have been unlawful.

“As of the time this administration came on board, there was no provision for subsidy in the national budget,” he said.

“Paying for subsidy would have been illegal because it was not budgeted for. We have accumulated wrong choices made over the years that are being corrected.

“So, we need to take out emotion and look at the facts of where we were coming from and where we are now.”

Tinubu had on May 29, 2023, in his inaugural speech, declared that “fuel subsidy is gone” — a pronouncement that immediately sent prices of goods and services up.

However, speaking during the panel session at the NBA conference, Ezekwesili pushed back, insisting the president’s declaration was not driven by careful planning.

“When we train in economic policy, you really have to prepare for reforms. I think that there was a braggadocio that was behind that whole ‘subsidy is gone’. That reform was not prepared for,” Ezekwesili said.

“So what we ended up in that situation was a good reform done in the wrong way. And because that good reform was done in the wrong way, it signalled to every other economic type of decisions that citizens had to make, and it threw the economy into the inflationary situation that we have found.” 

But Tunji-Ojo noted that the move was inevitable, stressing that Nigeria was spending about $25 billion annually on subsidies — an amount he described as unsustainable.

“We were busy spending money that we did not have… When a man has a tumour, it is not Panadol that is prescribed. Surgery may be the solution,” he said, adding: “The economy is not stupid, but our choices over the years have been stupid.”

The minister said savings from subsidy removal are now being redirected to infrastructure to boost production.