A Federal Government plan to offer a temporary 30-day discount on petrol sold at Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) retail stations has ignited a sharp political debate, with opposition figures branding it an election-timed palliative and the Presidency defending it as targeted relief for households amid high fuel prices and global oil market pressures.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele announced the measure on Thursday, stating that NNPC would temporarily forgo its retail profit margins and sell petrol at cost (landing or acquisition cost) for an initial 30 days.
Public transport operators nationwide would receive priority under the arrangement.
Oyedele stressed that the initiative “is not a subsidy. The government is just saying we sell to you at cost.”
Current pump prices at NNPC stations have been reported in the range of about ₦1,355 in Lagos and Rivers and ₦1,370 in Abuja, reflecting elevated levels since the 2023 subsidy removal and more recent global crude price influences.
The Minister presented the discount as a way to ease transport and logistics costs for vulnerable groups without fully reversing the market-oriented reforms.
However, opposition voices quickly rejected the 30-day petrol discount as inadequate, temporary, and politically motivated ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Leading the opposition charge, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar outrightly rejected the calendar-scheduled intervention, labeling it “shameless and heartless”.
In a statement released by the Director of Strategic Communication of the African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku questioned the sustainability of a temporary relief package introduced after years of intense economic hardship.
“Atiku totally rejects this calendar-scheduled, election-laced subsidy package. Nigerians are not fools to be offered a month of discounted fuel after years of punishing prices and then expected to forget the hardship when the discount expires. This is shameless and heartless,” the statement read.
The former Vice-President questioned the sustainability of the initiative and what would happen after the 30-day period.
“What happens on Day 31? Nigerians wake up to the same brutal prices, the same punishing transport fares and the same rising cost of food. The government cannot manufacture relief for one month and expect Nigerians to applaud while the hardship remains,” he said.
Atiku also questioned the restriction of the discount to NNPC stations, as well as the absence of a confirmed amount per litre and guarantees that transport operators would pass the savings on to passengers.
He maintained that the intervention vindicated his proposal for production support tied to locally refined petrol.
“This volte-face proves that the production-support proposal I have advanced is workable, achievable and not complicated. The Tinubu government and its spin doctors have tried to make it sound impossible, yet they are now reaching for a temporary subsidy-style intervention because the pain has become impossible to ignore,” Atiku said.
He reiterated his proposal for capped and budgeted production support for domestically refined petrol, with safeguards to ensure that consumers benefit.
“Nigerians need lasting relief, not a countdown to the return of hardship. Tinubu’s government cannot spend years telling Nigerians to endure, then offer 30 days of relief and call it a solution,” he said.
Atiku added, “Tinubu made life expensive. I will make life affordable again.”
Similarly, the Obidient Movement questioned the timing of the intervention, suggesting that it was linked to the approaching 2027 general elections.
In a statement by its Director of Media and Communications, Onyeka Dike, the movement questioned why the government had waited more than three years after subsidy removal before introducing measures to reduce petrol prices.
“For three years, Tinubu told Nigerians that the ‘baby steps of pain’ were necessary. Now, suddenly, a petrol discount is possible. So, what changed?” Dike asked.
He further queried, “Did subsidy suddenly become good because Peter Obi said he would restore it? Why the desperation as elections approach?”
Dike argued that Nigerians had endured high petrol prices, increased taxes, rising tuition fees and escalating food costs since the subsidy was removed.
“The pains were never necessary. They were policy choices,” he said.
The movement urged Nigerians not to be swayed by temporary relief measures, insisting that the country required sustainable access to affordable fuel, food and education.
“Three years of suffering cannot be erased by 30 days of petrol discount,” Dike added.
The NDC also rejected the intervention, describing it as “tokenism and a Greek gift from a government that whimsically removed fuel subsidy without proper consideration, consultation, or cushions for Nigerians.”
Its National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, argued that the discount would not address the economic consequences of subsidy removal, including job losses and business closures.
“Nigerians cannot be deceived,” he said.
Director questioned whether NNPC filling stations could adequately serve the population, warning that the arrangement could create congestion and stampedes.
“The attempt to reintroduce petrol subsidy through the backdoor is not only mischievous but a sign of a government in free fall, ready to clutch at anything to survive,” he said.
The party urged Nigerians to support Peter Obi and other NDC candidates in the 2027 elections, declaring, “A New Nigeria is POssible with Obi.”
Also reacting, Makinde’s Allied Peoples Movement Presidential Campaign Organisation described the intervention as deceptive and inadequate.
In a statement issued by its Director of Strategic Communications, Richard Ihediwa, the campaign criticised what it described as a N60-per-litre discount, arguing that the amount was insignificant compared with previous increases in petrol prices.
“It is a slap in the face of the suffering citizens that, at the time they expected an impactful reduction in the astronomically high pump price of petrol, the Tinubu government came out on national media to announce an infinitesimal and ‘microscopic’ discount of N60,” the statement read.
The organisation questioned why the government had introduced a marginal reduction after substantial increases in petrol prices.
“The question is, why is it that the Tinubu administration that is so quick in carrying out geometric increases in the price of petrol by up to 733% is now embarking on an arithmetic decrease with a tiny N60 in a desperate attempt to score a cheap political point just because elections are around the corner,” it stated.
It further argued that limiting the intervention to NNPC filling stations for one month demonstrated the administration’s inability to address rising living costs.
“The fact that the minuscule reduction will only be on scantly located NNPC-owned retail filling stations and for a period of one month clearly shows that the Tinubu administration has come to its wits’ end and become bereft of solutions,” the campaign said.
It maintained that Nigerians would not be swayed by the announcement ahead of the elections.
“What Nigerians desired and deserve is an impactful reduction in fuel price and not this dishonest act to hoodwink citizens ahead of the 2027 general elections,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Presidency, through Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga, backed the 30-day petrol discount amid opposition kickback.
Onanuga explained that none of the measures restore a blanket subsidy of the kind removed in May 2023, arguing that doing so would create longer-term harm.
The government has also referenced related steps, including efforts toward a ceiling on the landing or ex-gantry cost of petrol and other interventions to moderate volatility.
“This means if NNPC’s landing cost is N1,300, it will sell fuel to Nigerians, especially commercial vehicles, at the same price,” the statement read.
The Presidency said the Federal Government was also negotiating a ceiling of N1,350 per litre on the ex-gantry or landing cost of petrol to help stabilise pump prices.
It said that where costs rose above the ceiling, refiners and importers would bear the shortfall and recover it later when crude oil prices or the exchange rate improved, without breaching the ceiling.
“This is neither a subsidy nor a price control: it is designed to smooth prices over time rather than suppressing them,” Oyedele was quoted as saying.
He added, “The reasoning is simple. N1,400 a litre today and N1,400 tomorrow is better than N1,500 today and N1,300 tomorrow, because volatility itself adds to uncertainty and cost. And when fares rise sharply, they rarely fall as fast. The ceiling will be reviewed monthly, reset as costs require, and the figures published for transparency.”
