The National Association of Nigerian Students has criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s proposal to restore fuel subsidy if elected president in 2027. The NANS President, Akinteye Babatunde, recently had his say via a press statement, and Nigerians have been reacting.
Describing the promise as a political response to economic hardship rather than a sustainable solution to Nigeria’s fiscal challenges, Babatunde argued that returning to the old subsidy system without a clear structural framework would recreate the problems that made the policy unsustainable.
He added that NANS’ position is not partisan but based on the association’s responsibility to assess government policies and speak on issues of national importance.
His words, “Every sane and patriotic citizen who is conversant with our nation’s economy will agree with me that the removal of the fuel subsidy was a difficult but necessary economic reform aimed at ending an increasingly unsustainable system that consumed trillions of naira, benefited higher fuel consumers disproportionately, encouraged smuggling, and constrained the government’s ability to invest in critical sectors.
Clearly, we have seen the government increase state subventions and redirect resources into education, healthcare, infrastructure, and agriculture. Realistically, the Nigerian people have made a productive sacrifice that must ultimately translate into a stronger and more sustainable economy.
This is why calls or promises for the outright return of subsidy, without a clear structural framework for addressing the fundamental weaknesses that made the policy unsustainable in the first place, amount to little more than a political response to a genuine economic challenge.
Every aspirant willing to rule Nigeria and not run or, perhaps, ruin her must come to national debates with clear and sustainable policies that do not just address the immediate needs or comfort of our people, but rather, policies that best shape our country and can stand the test of time.
I submit, with firm conviction, that Mr Atiku Abubakar knows himself that we cannot return to the era of paying heavily for subsidy while we languish in infrastructural underdevelopment, with many states lacking the capacity to pay workers without borrowing.”
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