Former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, has said that ministers who served alongside her were fully aware that fuel subsidy was economically damaging to Nigeria and unsustainable in the long term.
Adeosun made this known while speaking on Channels Television’s Inside Sources on Friday, January 2, where she reflected on the subsidy regime and its eventual removal.
According to her, opposition to subsidy removal was never about ignorance of its harm but fear of its social consequences.
“There was no minister who did not see that subsidy was killing us,” she said.
She explained that several attempts were made to manage or reform the policy, including initiatives such as Sure-P, but these failed to address the deeper structural issues.
“We tried different things to stop fuel subsidy. Do you remember Sure-P? We knew that Nigeria has four international borders. And then you are subsidsing, but your own fuel was 44 per cent lower than that sold in other countries, and they are land borders,” Adeosun said.
She noted that official fuel consumption figures at the time were unrealistic.
“So, sometimes we ended up with a consumption base of like 65 million litres per day. So we did the maths. Nigeria had had like 10 million cars at the time, so what’s going on? It was not just possible!” she added.
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Adeosun said the government initially resisted outright removal because of its impact on citizens.
“We concluded that we could not just remove the subsidy because it was going to affect the people,” she said.
However, she stated the truth became clearer after tracking measures were introduced. “So we agreed to put trackers, and in no time, we found out the truth.
“What it meant was that the federal government was not subsidising just Nigeria, but the whole of West Africa, which we could not afford to do,” she stated.
She stressed that subsidy spending deprived critical sectors of funding.
“Now, the money you spend on subsidies was money you could not spend on roads, education, or health. And there was nothing to show for the fuel subsidy. So, everybody knew that policy had to go,” Adeosun said.
While acknowledging that President Bola Tinubu has now removed the subsidy, she said the government must ensure savings are used to benefit citizens.
“Now that the policy is gone, of course, there are some overspills, but in the long run, Nigerians are going to be so much better off on that,” she said.