The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has told Nigerians to brace for higher fuel prices, stressing that the current increase is only the beginning.
Adebayo said the price of fuel will keep increasing as long as the government continues to rely on market forces to determine fuel prices, a statement from his media office said.
He said President Bola Tinubu is using the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to artificially keep prices lower than they would be under true market conditions but cautioned that this strategy is unsustainable because of NNPC’s financial struggles, especially substantial debt.
The former presidential candidate, who had repeatedly opposed the removal of the subsidy, said it was a misstep, that would drive petrol prices toward an unsustainable equilibrium.
“I knew that one of the greatest mistakes you could ever make was to adopt a policy of removing the subsidy” he said, adding that market forces would inevitably push the price up, making it unaffordable for ordinary Nigerians.
He said the true cost of subsidy removal far outweighs the financial burden it places on the government.