Oyo State Governor and Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) presidential candidate, Seyi Makinde, has challenged the way Nigeria’s petrol subsidy debate is being framed, saying the country should focus on finding the right petroleum pricing system rather than simply debating whether subsidy should be retained or removed.
Makinde made the remarks in the September 2026 edition of his newsletter, The Business of Governance, where he argued that Nigeria, as an oil-producing country, needs a pricing framework that allows citizens to understand how the cost of petrol is determined.
According to him, the central question should be: “what is the right pricing framework for an oil-producing country like Nigeria?”
Makinde said Nigerians deserve greater transparency about the factors used to determine the price they pay at filling stations.
He identified the crude oil price benchmark, refining costs and margins, exchange-rate assumptions, logistics and distribution costs, taxes and levies, among other variables, as factors that should be clearly explained to the public.
The governor said such information should be publicly accessible so Nigerians can understand and assess the basis for petrol prices.
Makinde also criticised the argument that Nigerians should pay higher prices for petroleum products because lower domestic prices could encourage smuggling into neighbouring countries.
He argued that citizens should not be made to bear the cost of the government’s inability to effectively secure the nation’s borders.
The governor said the issue of petrol pricing was an example of the wider systemic changes he believes Nigeria needs under his proposed “Reset Nigeria” agenda.
He maintained that the debate should move beyond whether fuel subsidy should return or remain removed and instead examine whether the existing pricing structure gives Nigerians a fair benefit from the country’s natural resources.
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