The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has warned that returning to petrol subsidy would undermine the economic gains recorded since the Federal Government began implementing its reform agenda.
Idris said restoring the subsidy would place renewed pressure on public finances, discourage investment and recreate the distortions that characterised the previous subsidy regime.
The minister stated this in an opinion article published in national newspapers on Monday and titled “Restoring Fuel Subsidy Will Reverse Nigeria’s Economic Gains.”
His media aide, Rabiu Ibrahim, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja.
Idris argued that the subsidy regime had become increasingly difficult to sustain, particularly amid declining oil production and dwindling government revenues.
He recalled that Nigeria spent about $10bn on petrol subsidy in 2022, while the World Bank warned that the expenditure was diverting funds that could have been invested in critical sectors such as healthcare, education, infrastructure and social protection.
According to him, the removal of the subsidy has since created additional fiscal resources for the three tiers of government.
Citing the Federal Government’s Nigeria’s Reform Scorecard: The Benefits, Costs and Harms Prevented, Idris said subsidy savings had released N15.8tn in resources to the Federation between June 2023 and December 2025.
He said the amount included N5.43tn for the Federal Government, N6.52tn for state governments and N3.88tn for local governments.
The minister stressed that the N15.8tn did not represent a separate cash reserve, but resources made available within the Federation’s broader fiscal system as a result of subsidy savings.
He said the additional resources had helped states and local governments meet salary and pension obligations while also creating room for investment in public services.
At the federal level, Idris said the fiscal space had supported spending on infrastructure, security, agriculture and human capital development.
He disclosed that about N6.47tn had been spent additionally on strategic infrastructure, while more than N400bn had been committed to social investment initiatives, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund, MREIF and CREDICORP.
The minister further stated that social transfers had reached more than 10 million Nigerian households.
Idris warned that the government’s fiscal position could come under renewed pressure if petrol subsidy was restored, particularly as the country was already funding electricity subsidies.
He said electricity subsidy alone was estimated at N3.14tn between June 2023 and December 2025.
“Restoring subsidy would almost instantly return Nigeria to the economic conditions of 2022, recreating the same fiscal pressures, distortions, scarcity and incentives for arbitrage that made the old system unsustainable,” Idris said.
He also challenged those advocating a return to subsidy to consider the programmes and investments that could lose funding as a result.
“Do we restore petrol subsidy, or sustain student loans and consumer credit for young Nigerians? Do we restore subsidy, or preserve higher allocations to states and local governments? Do we restore subsidy, or continue funding roads, rail, power and security?” he asked.
He also questioned whether Nigeria should sacrifice funding for healthcare, education and social protection in order to finance petrol subsidy.
Idris said the organised private sector and other economic stakeholders had similarly cautioned against reversing the reforms.
“Nigeria cannot build tomorrow’s economy by returning to yesterday’s unsustainable subsidy regime. We have moved beyond that model,” he said.
The minister urged Nigerians to assess the reforms against their long-term impact on the economy, saying the country needed to build stronger fiscal capacity and a more productive economy rather than return to a system he described as unsustainable.
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