By Okoi Obono-obla
A presidential candidate who has secured the sponsorship of his political party to campaign and canvass for votes — to convince, persuade, and win the support of the electorate in a democratic election and possibly form the government that will manage affairs in a complex mosaic of contending centripetal and centrifugal forces, which in classical political theory represents a perpetual struggle for the authoritative allocation and sharing of scarce resources — must be enlightened and informed about the policies he intends to execute and implement should he win.
It is therefore hugely disappointing when a presidential candidate displays such abysmal ignorance of simple matters like subsidy withdrawal, or cunningly hides under populism to mask his economic agenda.
The withdrawal of subsidies was not a policy carried out whimsically or on a capricious brainwave of the President. It was predicated on a comprehensive legal and policy framework that took many years to conceptualize by leading experts in the oil and gas sector, in order to turn around a dwindling sector that had become a curse rather than a blessing. This is what birthed the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, which the immediate past administration dragged its feet to implement out of populist sympathy, but which the current administration boldly implemented by ending the subsidy regime on 29th May, 2023.
The withdrawal of subsidies is therefore hinged on the PIA and cannot be reversed without amending the Act that gave it legal backing. The Act provides a clear statutory foundation for deregulation. Section 205(1) of the PIA expressly provides that wholesale and retail prices of petroleum products shall be based on unrestricted free market pricing conditions. Its pricing principles further mandate the avoidance of economic distortions and the promotion of a competitive market, as well as the avoidance of cross-subsidies among different categories of consumers. To give effect to this, the Act established the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to monitor market behaviour and ensure competitiveness, with the Authority affirming that market forces will now determine prices.
It therefore beggars belief that the opening speech of a presidential candidate at the commencement of campaigns for the 2027 presidential elections — a candidate who has continuously postured and hyped himself as an economic expert whose government would turn the country into an economic Eldorado — would be centred on the withdrawal of fuel subsidies that ended four years ago. Such a faux pas is staggering and unpardonable.
In conclusion, a candidate aspiring to lead a complex, diverse federation cannot afford to be ignorant of its existing laws. Subsidy removal is no longer a policy option to be debated on the campaign stump; it is the law of the land under the PIA 2021. Any promise to reverse it without a clear legislative agenda to repeal or amend the Act is either a demonstration of profound ignorance or a deliberate resort to populist deceit. Nigerians deserve an issue-based campaign anchored on law, economics, and reality, not nostalgia for a failed and unsustainable regime.
