2027: YPP Candidate Agada Rules Out Fuel Subsidy Return

The presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Peter Agada, says he will not restore petrol subsidy if elected president in the 2027 general elections.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Agada said he would retain the subsidy removal policy introduced by President Bola Tinubu but reform government spending to improve revenue and economic outcomes.

Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy during his inauguration on May 29, 2023, declaring that “subsidy is gone”.

The policy triggered a sharp increase in petrol prices and contributed to rising costs of goods and services across the country.

Some presidential hopefuls, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Atiku Abubakar, have promised to restore the subsidy to lower petrol prices and ease the hardship faced by Nigerians.

However, Agada said he would maintain the current administration’s policy.

“I will stick to the gun with the present administration. We will remove subsidy the way they have done,” he said.

The YPP candidate argued that Nigeria’s revenue challenges were linked to the way the country manages its oil resources and the costs associated with oil production.

Referring to comments by the Minister of State for Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, Agada questioned the volume of crude oil revenue available to the Federal Government after deductions.

“What the challenge is, is not what the present administration is doing, what the challenge is if you listened to Minister Oyedele the last time he was speaking, which I have checked and agree with, is the fact the the free shared oil that the Federal Government gets out of the 1.8 billion barrels per day produced after you remove royalties, after you remove all the other costs, is about 1000 barrels per day. What can you do with 100,000 barrels per day?” he said.

Agada said his administration would focus on reforming the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) processes, which he identified as an area requiring scrutiny to reduce waste and improve government revenue.

“We want to interrogate that system because we think that the wastage and majority of the challenges Nigeria is facing in terms of lower revenue is coming from that whole regime or that system that Nigeria practices and we are saying that that system has been faulty from day one,” he added.

The YPP candidate said Nigeria had both revenue and expenditure challenges, but argued that spending was the bigger problem.