Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, has defended rising fuel prices, describing escalating energy costs as a global challenge.
Idris said this on Monday during a media chat with senior editors and journalists in Abuja.
“Rising energy costs are a global challenge, and governments across the world are adopting different approaches to protect their economies and cushion the impact on citizens,” he said.
He said the Federal Government remained mindful of the pressures higher energy costs placed on households, businesses and the wider economy.
“President Bola Tinubu remains firmly committed to the economic reforms that are strengthening our country, while ensuring that the welfare of Nigerians remains paramount,” Idris said.
According to him, the government is consolidating reform gains, expanding affordable energy alternatives, strengthening domestic production and creating conditions for sustainable reductions in living costs.
He said Tinubu understood the challenges Nigerians faced and remained determined to translate economic recovery into greater affordability, improved purchasing power and better living conditions.
Idris said the achievements of the Renewed Hope Agenda over the past three years were evident across the administration’s Eight Presidential Priority Areas.
He listed the priorities as economic reforms for sustained and inclusive growth, strengthened national security, improved agriculture and food security, and the unlocking of energy and natural resources.
Others, he said, included expanding infrastructure and transportation, improving education, healthcare and social investment, and accelerating diversification through industrialisation, digitisation and innovation.
He also identified improved governance and effective service delivery as key priorities, describing the initiatives as interconnected components of national transformation.
“These are not isolated achievements. They represent a deliberate and interconnected programme of national transformation,” the minister said.
On security, Idris said the Federal Government would neither relent nor retreat in its determination to secure every part of the country.
“Let me assure Nigerians that the Federal Government will neither relent nor retreat in its determination to secure every part of our country,” he said.
He said the President continued to demand results from security leaders, adding that investments in personnel, technology, intelligence and operational capabilities were aimed at achieving lasting security.
“The security of Nigerians is not negotiable,” Idris said, pledging continued protection for vulnerable communities.
He said the government remained committed to ensuring that Nigerians could live, travel, farm, trade and work safely across the country.
On federalism, Idris said Nigeria operated a three-tier system of government and noted that Tinubu had consistently championed true federalism throughout his political career.
He said the President’s actions over the past three years had demonstrated his commitment to strengthening state and local governments financially and constitutionally.
According to him, measures included increased fiscal transfers, efforts to secure local government autonomy, proposals for state police and electricity reforms empowering states to invest in and regulate the sector.
Idris said the President had also urged subnational governments to assume greater responsibility for delivering essential public services.
“Many of the services that touch daily life most directly, from urban transport and schools to primary healthcare and waste management, sit with States and Local Governments,” he said.
He noted that several states were responding positively to the responsibility.
The minister cited a recent World Bank report indicating that combined capital expenditure by states rose by 151 per cent in real terms between 2023 and 2025.
He said the increase covered significant investments in transportation, education, healthcare and social services.
Idris urged the media to hold all three tiers of government accountable for their respective responsibilities.