Makinde blast Tinubu for removing fuel subsidy and floating the Naira

Oyo State Governor and presidential candidate of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), Seyi Makinde, has criticised the Federal Government’s decision to remove the petrol subsidy while simultaneously moving the naira towards a market-driven exchange rate, describing the combination as a severe economic burden on Nigerians.

Makinde made the remarks on Monday in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where the APM unveiled its deputy governorship candidate for the state, Mrs Deborah Akinlade, alongside its candidates for the state and National Assembly ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The governor, who was represented at the event by a national leader of the party, Mr Babatunde Tijani, questioned the wisdom of implementing the two major reforms without sufficient measures to protect households from the immediate consequences.

According to him, the impact of the reforms was bound to be severe where citizens were not given adequate support to absorb the resulting increase in living costs.

“How can a person just decide one day that he will remove the fuel subsidy without any cushioning effect or any palliative to fill the gap? At the same time, they still went ahead and floated the naira.”

Makinde argued that the simultaneous reforms amounted to twin economic shocks, particularly for ordinary Nigerians already struggling with rising prices.

His criticism centres on the gap between macroeconomic reform and household welfare. The World Bank had warned at the outset of the reforms that subsidy removal would create significant short-term price pressures and stressed the importance of compensating transfers to protect vulnerable households.

The exchange-rate reform also brought a sharp adjustment in the value of the naira. By December 2023, the World Bank reported that the currency had depreciated by about 41 per cent against the US dollar in the official market, while retail petrol prices had risen by an average of 163 per cent following subsidy removal.

The economic picture has since become more nuanced. Recent World Bank assessments point to stronger growth, improved external balances and other signs of macroeconomic stabilisation, but warn that high food prices continue to weigh heavily on households. The bank has consequently urged greater social protection and measures targeted at reducing food inflation.

The Federal Government, meanwhile, has continued to defend the broader reform direction. In a recent development, Finance Minister Wale Edun said savings from subsidy removal and foreign-exchange reforms had largely been absorbed by higher debt-servicing costs and increased government spending, underscoring the fiscal pressures still confronting the country.

For Makinde, however, the central issue remains the immediate cost borne by Nigerians: reforms designed to stabilise the economy, he argues, cannot be judged solely by their long-term fiscal or macroeconomic objectives while households struggle to cope with the short-term shock.