Flashback: How Tinubu Called Removal Of Fuel Subsidy ‘Jonathan Tax’

In a bold move during his inaugural address at Eagle Square, Abuja, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared, “Subsidy is gone,” a statement that triggered an immediate surge in fuel prices from ₦198 per litre to ₦540.

During his speech, Tinubu emphasized that the fuel subsidy had become a significant impediment to Nigeria’s progress, arguing that it was fueling corruption and inefficiency within the economy.

Tinubu had told some monarchs who visited him at Aso Rock a month after subsidy removal, “You have paid attention to the subsidy removal. Why should we in good heart and sense, feed smugglers and be Father Christmas to neighbouring countries, even though they say not every day is Christmas? The elephant that was going to bring Nigeria to its knees is the subsidy.

“A country that cannot pay salaries and we say we have potential to encourage ourselves. I think we did the right thing.”

Interestingly, Tinubu, as the national leader of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), condemned the removal of petrol subsidy by the administration of Goodluck Jonathan in January 2012.

He called it “Jonathan tax” and accused the then president of breaching his social contract with the people.

In a piece titled, ‘Removal of oil subsidy: President Jonathan breaks social contract with the people’, he noted that with the subsidy removal, the people would become “enslaved to greater misery.”

The piece reads, “By taking this step, the government has tossed the people into the depths of the midnight sea. Government demands the people swim to safety under their own power, claiming the attendant hardship will build character and add efficiency to the national economy.

“It is easy to make these claims when one is dry and on shore. Government would have us believe that every hardship it manufactures for the people to endure is a good thing. This is a lie. The hardships they thrust upon the poor often bear no other purpose than to keep them poor. This is such a time.

“I am not calling President Jonathan an evil man. I do not believe he is perverse. However, the economic ideas controlling him are so misguided that they have a perverse impact. Because he is slave to wrong-headed economics, the people will become enslaved to greater misery. This crisis will bear his name and will be his legacy.

“The people now pay a steep tax for voting him into office. The removal of the subsidy is the ‘Jonathan tax.’ This situation shows that ideas count more than personalities. People may occupy office but how that person performs depends on the ideas that occupy his mind.”