Finance minister Taiwo Oyedele says it’s ‘not a subsidy’ — but the NLC gives Tinubu two
weeks to roll back pump prices or face a strike.
The federal government is to sell petrol at a discount for 30 days at filling stations run by the
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), with public transporters first in line, under a
plan announced in the last few hours.
Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele was emphatic that the
move is not a return to the fuel subsidy that President Bola Tinubu scrapped in 2023. ‘It is not a
subsidy. The fuel is being sold at cost,’ Oyedele said, adding that government is simultaneously
negotiating a ceiling of ₦1,350 per litre on the ex-gantry or landing cost, to be reviewed monthly.
Three things, all for the next 30 days: a margin discount at NNPC stations funded out of the
government’s share; priority access for licensed commercial transporters, including danfo and
interstate operators; and a review mechanism that will reset the ex-gantry cap each month based on
the landing price of imported fuel.
The Presidency moved quickly to pre-empt accusations that Tinubu was reversing his signature
reform. Spokesman Bayo Onanuga said reports framing the move as a return of the subsidy were
‘misleading’ — the discount is a margin adjustment, not a payment to marketers.
Labour is not buying it
Within hours of the announcement, the Nigeria Labour Congress fired back. The NLC has given the
federal government a two-week ultimatum to reduce the pump price of petrol to its 2024 level and
begin fresh negotiations on a new national minimum wage. The clock started ticking today, Friday, 9
October.
If the deadline passes without an agreement, the country is on course for its most serious industrial
action of the Tinubu era. Fuel station queues have already lengthened in Lagos and Abuja as
motorists try to lock in the discount before stocks run low.
Why the government blinked
The timing is not coincidental. Headline inflation has refused to come down convincingly, the naira
has slipped again against the dollar in parallel-market trading this week, and voter card collection for
the next electoral cycle began today — INEC says the register is now above 103 million. A fuel-price
flashpoint going into a nationwide voter interaction window is politically unaffordable.
