Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has broken his silence on the renewed controversy over fuel subsidy removal, expressing support for the position of the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, and challenging former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his call for the restoration of subsidy.
The intervention comes as the subsidy debate returns to the centre of Nigeria’s political discourse ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Atiku has recently advocated the restoration of a targeted fuel subsidy if elected president, arguing that Nigerians have not sufficiently benefited from the savings associated with its removal.
Abdulsalami, however, is said to have urged Nigerians to look beyond the immediate difficulties associated with the reform and examine its broader economic implications. His position gives a new dimension to a debate that has increasingly become both an economic and political issue.
The former Military Head of State also commended the Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, for defending the government’s economic reforms and explaining the rationale behind the removal of subsidy.
Idris has maintained that returning to the previous subsidy regime would worsen the country’s economic difficulties rather than provide a sustainable solution.
According to the argument advanced by supporters of the reform, the old subsidy arrangement created a major fiscal burden and was vulnerable to abuse, while the removal has allowed government to redirect attention towards broader economic restructuring.
The Presidency has similarly argued that subsidy removal should not simply be viewed as money saved in a government account, but as the elimination of a costly fiscal distortion.
Abdulsalami’s challenge to Atiku therefore centres on the question of whether Nigeria should return to a system that kept petrol prices artificially low or continue with reforms designed to establish a more sustainable petroleum market.
The former military leader’s intervention places emphasis on the long-term consequences of economic policy rather than solely on the immediate political appeal of cheaper fuel.
The former Head of State’s position is particularly notable because he had previously expressed concern about fuel-price increases and warned that removing subsidy at a difficult economic period could push millions of Nigerians deeper into poverty.
In 2022, Abdulsalami cautioned the Federal Government against a planned increase, describing the situation as capable of worsening hardship.
The current debate, however, has moved beyond the question of whether subsidy should be removed to the larger issue of what Nigerians have gained from the reforms. With inflation, household costs and living standards remaining major political concerns, Atiku has made the restoration of subsidy part of his emerging economic argument, while the Tinubu administration continues to defend the reform.
For Abdulsalami, the central lesson is that economic reforms should ultimately be judged by their ability to improve national welfare, strengthen public finances and create a more sustainable economy.
His intervention, alongside Idris’s defence of the policy, is likely to intensify the national conversation over whether Nigeria should reverse course or consolidate the reforms already undertaken.
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