By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has urged Nigerians, particularly youths, not to support calls by some politicians for a return to the fuel subsidy regime, insisting the focus should instead be on ensuring accountability in the use of savings from its removal.
The NANS President, Babatunde Akinteye, made the call on Tuesday, 1 September, 2026 in Akure, Ondo State capital, while speaking at a youth summit themed “Unlocking Ondo State Students’ Potentials For Economic Growth,” sponsored by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
He said Nigeria had operated the subsidy regime for about four decades, during which successive governments, economists and policy analysts agreed it was financially unsustainable.
Akinteye said that, rather than canvassing a return to subsidy payments, Nigerians should demand transparency and accountability in the utilisation of the funds saved from its removal.
“We should monitor the money being saved from the removal of fuel subsidy and ensure it is channelled into projects and programmes that benefit all Nigerians, instead of returning to a system where a few individuals cornered resources meant for the entire country,” he said.
He recalled that Nigerians still experienced persistent fuel scarcity during the subsidy era, despite huge government spending on the payments, and noted that petrol prices had begun to decline before the outbreak of the Iran-United States conflict, which he said had since contributed to the recent rise in fuel prices.
The NANS president argued that restoring the subsidy would place an unbearable financial burden on the country, questioning where the resources would come from to sustain such payments.
He noted that previous administrations often resorted to borrowing to finance it and, in some instances, to pay workers’ salaries.
“Today, loans are largely tied to specific capital projects rather than recurrent expenditure such as salaries or fuel subsidy. We should not return to that era,” he said.
He said anyone aspiring to lead Nigeria should present practical plans on how savings from the removal would be invested to improve citizens’ lives, rather than promising to restore the subsidy, citing the Nigerian Education Loan Fund as one of the intervention programmes that had benefited many students since.
Akinteye further noted that provisions for subsidy payments had already been discontinued in the 2023 Appropriation Bill prepared by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, and that both past and present administrations had consistently maintained that it was unsustainable.
He described proposals by some political gladiators to reintroduce it as political rhetoric rather than realistic economic policy, insisting that focus should remain on ensuring that savings from the removal are prudently managed for national development.
In a related development, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has attacked former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s plan to restore the subsidy, while the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has challenged the Federal Government to account for the N15.8 trillion in additional revenues it said accrued from the reforms.
The APC National Chairman, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Information Strategy, Abimbola Tooki, warned that Atiku’s proposal to return Nigeria to the old regime could reverse the economic gains recorded under the ongoing reforms, with negative consequences for workers’ wages, education, infrastructure and the fiscal stability of states.
He said the move would return Nigerians to fuel queues, threaten the payment of the current minimum wage and lead to the cancellation of education grants for students, among other consequences for the masses.
