JamzNG Latest News, Gist, Entertainment in Nigeria
The debate over fuel prices has taken a new turn ahead of the 2027 presidential elections, with the People’s Redemption Party’s (PRP) presidential candidate, Donald Duke, proposing a return to production-based pricing that could reduce fuel prices to as low as N300 per litre.
Duke’s proposal comes amid President Bola Tinubu’s decision to remove petrol subsidies by 2023, a policy the government has consistently defended as necessary to reduce fiscal pressure and free up resources for other priorities.
The Federal Government said the write-off saves N15.8 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025, while Tinubu stated that the policy was necessary to prevent a fiscal collapse.
However, unlike the return to the previous subsidy regime, Duke proposed that the price of petrol for domestic consumption should be adjusted to its production costs and not to international market standards.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Wednesday, the former governor of Cross River State criticized the existing approach and argued that Nigerians should benefit more directly from the country’s crude oil resources.
“Regarding the subsidy regime—all of this is a scam. I will price petroleum products for local consumption at production costs, not at international market prices,” Duke said.
His position places him within the broader political argument in 2027 over whether Nigeria should maintain market-based fuel prices or use government intervention to reduce the burden of fuel costs on consumers.
Duke argues that the gap between production costs and international prices is responsible for much of the burden being passed on to Nigerian consumers.
“I gave you a production cost of $45, right? The international price—that’s $45, including processing, refining, otherwise it’s about $30, and you sell it back to your own people for 100 dollars,” he added.
For Duke, the consequences are not just an energy sector issue but a broader cost of living issue, particularly for workers whose income is spent on transport and fuel costs.
“You don’t want them to breathe, and your society is the poorest in the world. They can’t afford it. The basic minimum wage is 70,000 naira. Your salary is just to fill one tank of fuel,” he said.
When asked how much Nigerians could expect to pay under his proposed policies, Duke put forward specific targets.
“I will try to increase it to about 300 naira. I told you that it sounds very strange, but I have given you the calculations,” he said.
His proposals are generally in line with the increasing political push for government intervention in fuel price setting, although the three opposition positions are not identical.
Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has proposed what he calls transparent production subsidies for gasoline refined in Nigeria. Under his proposal, imported gasoline would not be eligible, while the intervention would have fixed spending limits, National Assembly approval and independent audits.
Atiku also stated that he would restore subsidies in some form if elected, arguing that Nigerians should benefit from the country’s oil wealth. His proposal has raised questions from the Tinubu administration and the APC regarding the legal and fiscal basis under the Petroleum Industry Act.
Also read: World Bank estimates Nigeria’s growth rate at 4.3% in 2026
Peter Obi of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) also supports a form of subsidy intervention, arguing that corruption and not subsidies themselves were the underlying problem in the previous arrangement. Recent reports indicate that Obi has said he will restore subsidies if elected, provided corruption linked to the scheme is eliminated.
These differing positions mean that the 2027 election will present voters with competing approaches to the same basic question: whether fuel prices should be determined largely by market forces or whether the government should intervene to make domestic fuel more affordable.
Duke’s proposed mechanism is to dedicate a portion of Nigeria’s crude oil production to meet domestic consumption, and sell the remainder to international markets.
“Allocate 600,000 barrels if that’s what you consume every day. Allocate it for yourself. You can sell another million,” he said.
In fact, the proposal aims to isolate domestic consumers from international price movements by treating part of Nigeria’s crude oil production as a strategic domestic resource.
Therefore, the key policy differences between the proposals are not simply whether government support should be restored, but how such support should be structured, who should benefit from it, how it should be financed and how such support would align with Nigeria’s domestic petroleum sector laws and refining capacity.
Although the Tinubu administration has sought the removal of subsidies and market-oriented pricing as part of broader economic reforms, Duke, Atiku and Obi presented various forms of intervention as possible alternatives by 2027.
For voters, the debate is about more than promised gas pump prices. This raises questions regarding the sustainability of each proposal, the amount of costs that must be borne by the government, the treatment of domestic refining companies, the role of imported fuel and the mechanisms needed to prevent corruption and leakages that have always occurred around fuel subsidies.
Duke’s N300 target has therefore added a specific price benchmark to the intensifying 2027 debate, while Atiku and Obi have separately put forward proposals for government intervention in the domestic fuel market.
Competing proposals are likely to put fuel pricing and subsidies at the center of economic discussions as the 2027 presidential election gathers momentum.
