The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has warned that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s call for the restoration of fuel subsidy could return Nigeria to an era of fuel queues and severe fiscal pressures.
Yilwatda also cautioned that returning to the old subsidy regime could undermine the government’s ability to sustain the current minimum wage, fund education and meet other critical obligations to Nigerians.
The APC chairman spoke in Abuja while receiving a delegation of critical economic stakeholders who visited him to discuss the state of the Nigerian economy, ongoing reforms and prospects for sustainable economic growth.
He said the subsidy debate should go beyond political rhetoric, urging Nigerians to consider the wider economic implications of returning to a system that previously imposed a significant financial burden on government.
“Subsidy may appear attractive because it promises cheaper petrol, but Nigerians must also ask the bigger question: who pays for the subsidy and what happens to the resources that government must divert to finance it?” he said.
Yilwatda argued that the impact of subsidy should not be assessed solely from the perspective of petrol prices, but also in relation to government revenues, salaries, pensions, education, healthcare and infrastructure.
According to him, the removal of subsidy under the current administration has increased federal allocations to states and improved the fiscal position of many sub-national governments.
He recalled that several state governments previously struggled to meet salary obligations, with some unable to pay workers regularly, while others resorted to partial salary payments.
The APC national chairman warned that any attempt to reintroduce fuel subsidy must therefore be subjected to rigorous economic scrutiny to avoid recreating the fiscal challenges associated with the former regime.
On workers’ wages, Yilwatda said the sustainability of the new minimum wage was closely tied to the ability of governments at all levels to generate sufficient revenue to meet their recurrent obligations.
He said increasing wages was not enough, stressing that governments must have the financial capacity to consistently pay workers without sacrificing investment in infrastructure, education and healthcare.
Yilwatda also expressed concern about the possible impact of renewed fiscal pressures on education, noting that the country had previously witnessed prolonged disruptions in academic activities in its universities.
He highlighted the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as a major intervention that has expanded access to tertiary education financing and reduced the immediate financial burden on families.
According to him, sustainable funding for education remains critical to preventing Nigerian students from abandoning their studies because of financial difficulties.
The APC chairman further pointed to improvements in Nigeria’s financial and digital payment ecosystem, including the growing ability of Nigerians to use locally issued bank cards for legitimate international transactions.
He said such developments were particularly important to young Nigerians, content creators, software developers, consultants and freelancers whose livelihoods increasingly depend on international payments.
While acknowledging the hardship experienced by Nigerians following the removal of fuel subsidy, Yilwatda said the government must continue strengthening measures designed to cushion vulnerable citizens from the effects of the reforms.
“The hardship Nigerians have experienced is real, and government must continue to respond to it. But the answer cannot simply be to return to a system whose long-term fiscal implications created serious distortions in our economy,” he said.
He challenged political leaders advocating a return to fuel subsidy to explain how the policy would be funded, how much it would cost the country, how long it would last and what government programmes could be sacrificed to finance it.
Yilwatda maintained that Nigeria’s economic future should not be determined by short-term political considerations, but by policies capable of delivering sustainable growth, employment, investment and improved living standards.
He reaffirmed the commitment of the APC-led Federal Government to economic reforms aimed at building a more productive, competitive and sustainable Nigerian economy, while urging stakeholders to engage government constructively on ways to improve the implementation and ensure that the benefits of the reforms are more widely shared.
