The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has warned that any attempt to restore fuel subsidy would reverse the economic gains recorded since the removal of the subsidy by the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

Idris said the return of subsidy would recreate the fiscal pressures, distortions, fuel scarcity and incentives for arbitrage that made the policy unsustainable.

The minister stated this in an article titled “Restoring Fuel Subsidy Will Reverse Nigeria’s Economic Gains,” in which he defended the Federal Government’s economic reforms and urged Nigerians to consider the long-term benefits of the policies.

He recalled that Nigeria spent about $10 billion on fuel subsidies in 2022, at a time when the country was grappling with declining oil production and weak revenues.

According to him, the World Bank had warned that the subsidy was consuming resources that could otherwise have been channelled into education, healthcare, infrastructure and social protection.

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