Mismanagement of Subsidy Proceeds Not Reason to Reverse Removal — Obi

The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) for the 2027 general election, Peter Obi, has said that the mismanagement of proceeds from fuel subsidy removal should not be a reason to reverse the policy.

Obi stated this on Monday during a panel session at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The former Anambra State governor said he supported the removal of fuel subsidy but argued that the resources recovered from the policy should have been transparently managed and channelled into productive investments.

“I subscribe, and I maintain that you need to remove subsidy. Mismanagement of the proceeds should not be the reason for not removing it,” Obi said.

According to him, the government should have provided alternative benefits to Nigerians while ensuring that the resources saved from subsidy removal were properly invested.

He alleged that the resources recovered from the policy were being mismanaged and stolen.

“What we should have done is that when we removed the subsidy, we would have given the people an alternative usage for the subsidy,” he said.

Obi also referenced the Federal Government’s reported figure of about N16tn in resources recovered from the reforms, arguing that such funds could have been deployed to improve the country’s economic position.

“I said it before, go to my manifesto and see where I said I would remove the subsidy. We’ll do it in an organised manner, and whatever we recover will be invested appropriately,” he said.

He added that the funds could either have been invested in critical sectors or saved through the country’s sovereign wealth system.

“If they had saved the money and decided to do like any other country, we would have had $10 billion added to the Sovereign Wealth Fund,” Obi said.

He maintained that the central issue was not necessarily the removal of subsidy but what government did with the resources generated from the policy.

“For example, we have received, according to them (the Federal Government), N16 trillion,” he said, stressing the need for greater accountability in the management of public resources.