Labour Party presidential flag bearer Peter Obi is ambivalent about the removal of fuel subsidy if elected president in 2023.

“Yes and no,” Mr Obi declared during an interview on ARISE TV. 

He added, “I’ll remove it. But I’ll have to offer them what is equivalent… Yes, because I’m going to use it to do something that will benefit (them). But if I’m not going to do that I’m not going to remove it. You must be able to offer something in replacement of what you’re trying to do.”

Speaking further, the former Anambra governor slammed President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime and former Goodluck Jonathan’s administration for wasting public funds on the subsidy.

“The most two critical engines of development are health and education, and your expenditure in education and health in the past 10 years is about $20 billion. Go and check the records and you spent $40 billion on subsidy,” he asserted.

Mr Obi suggested that Nigeria would have distributed about 20,000 megawatts of electricity if Mr Buhari’s regime and Mr Jonathan’s administration channelled half of the subsidy funds to power generation.

In January, Mr Buhari’s regime said it would enforce complete fuel subsidy removal in July, promising to provide Nigerians with a N5,000 transport allowance to cushion the adverse effects. The regime backed down following threats of nationwide protests.

Last March, the regime said it suspended the subsidy removal due to pushback from citizens and to avoid consequences in the 2023 general elections.