Why Atiku is Wrong on Planned Return of Fuel Subsidy, By Ben Murray-Bruce

Let me start with the thing nobody wants to say

Atiku Abubakar is wrong. Bringing back the fuel subsidy is not the answer. We tried it for forty years. It made a few men billionaires, it fed smugglers at our borders, and it never once put money in the pocket of the woman selling tomatoes by the roadside. Going back to it would be going back to the same thieves.

Mr President, you have done well. Removing the subsidy was hard and you did it. You have also sent far more money to the states than any President before you. The Federal Government has done its part.

Now the states must do theirs.

And let me say this as plainly as I know how, so that no governor can pretend to misunderstand it.

Subsidising transport inside a state is the job of that state government. It is not the job of the President. It has never been his job. It is not his job today. It will not be his job tomorrow. Moving people around Ilorin is not the work of Abuja, it is the work of the Kwara State Government. Moving people around Kano is the work of Kano State. Moving people around Lagos is the work of Lagos State.

This is not my opinion. It is our Constitution. Transport within a state is a state matter. The Federal Government has no business running a bus from Ozumba Mbadiwe to Ikorodu, and it should not be asked to. In fact, since the constitutional amendment of 2023, our governors have more power over transport than any governors in the history of this republic. They are simply not using it.

So when a governor tells you the hardship in his state is Abuja’s fault, ask him one question: what have you done with your own allocation?

Because that is where the money is. And that is where the responsibility is.

In December 2022, one bus drop inside a Nigerian city cost ₦644. Today it is ₦1,431. Our people are now working half the month just to pay the bus. A man who cannot afford to reach his workplace does not really have a job. A child who cannot afford to reach school does not really have an education.

So this is what I am asking every one of the 36 governors and the Minister of the FCT to do.

One. Students ride free. Every student, to school and back home, at no cost. Not discounted. Free.

Two. Nobody pays more than ₦500. From one end of a city to the farthest end of that same city, ₦500 maximum. And in our smaller cities and towns, it should be far less than that.

Three. Do not buy a single bus. Governors, please. No buses. No taxis. No boats. We have seen those vehicles rusting in government yards from Sokoto to Yenagoa. Instead, register the drivers who are already on the road, fix the fare the passenger pays, and pay the driver the difference.

Four. Pay only for trips you can prove. GPS on the vehicle, a tap card in the passenger’s hand. If a trip did not happen, nobody gets paid. That is how you kill fraud before it is born.

The drivers will not lose. The drivers will get richer. Today a driver chases passengers in traffic and prays. Under this scheme he earns a guaranteed payment from the state every month. With steady income he can service his vehicle, and in time he can buy a newer, cleaner, safer one.

And our people will feel it immediately. Money that used to disappear into transport will stay in the pocket for food, for rent, for medicine, for school fees. That is a pay rise that costs nobody a job.

Now, the money. FAAC allocations to the states have exploded since the subsidy was removed from ₦2.8 trillion in 2022 to ₦7.3 trillion in 2025. Nigerians have been asking a fair question ever since: where did it go?

I am asking each state to spend no more than five per cent of its FAAC allocation on this. Five per cent. Ninety-five per cent remains untouched for everything else.

If a governor cannot find five per cent to stop his own people from suffering, then the problem in that state was never money.

This can be done before 2027. Nothing needs to be built, because the vehicles and the drivers are already there. Any state can start with its busiest routes, publish what it spends, and expand from there.

Mr President, I am not asking you to fund this. I am not asking you to run it. I am asking you to write to all 36 governors and the FCT Minister and tell them plainly that this one is theirs and that the Federal Government has sent them the money, and the Constitution has given them the power, and there is nothing left to wait for.

You have carried this weight alone for long enough. Hand it to the people whose job it actually is.

And to those governors: I will explain this to any of you, personally, at no cost. All 36 of you, and the FCT. My phone is not switched off.

This is not rocket science. It is common sense.