Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has said Nigerians could pay significantly less for petroleum products, alleging corruption within the existing system and promising to make the country’s fuel pricing template public if elected president.
Makinde, speaking in an exclusive interview with ARISE News, said transparency in petroleum pricing would be a priority from his first day in office.
“I believe that there’s corruption within the system,” Makinde said.
The governor, who worked in the oil and gas industry before entering politics, said Nigerians should be able to see the components used in arriving at the price they pay for petroleum products rather than being presented with a final figure without sufficient explanation.
He said his administration would disclose the pricing template, allowing the public to understand the assumptions and costs behind pump prices.
Pressed repeatedly by Okpe to state exactly what Nigerians should expect to pay for petrol under his presidency, Makinde declined to give a specific figure.
He insisted, however, that the price could be “significantly lower.”
Makinde said his position was informed by professional experience in the petroleum industry, describing oil and gas as an area in which he has considerable technical expertise dating back to the early 1990s.
He also questioned the long-running debate over fuel subsidy, recalling Tinubu’s position during the 2012 subsidy protests and arguing that inefficiencies and corruption within the petroleum system needed to be confronted.
Makinde’s argument formed part of a broader criticism of the Federal Government’s management of the economy and the effect of national policy decisions on households and subnational governments.
He said increased nominal revenues should not automatically be interpreted as increased prosperity because inflation and the depreciation of the naira had dramatically increased the cost of wages, infrastructure and other government obligations.
Using Oyo State as an example, Makinde said the state’s monthly salary bill had risen from about ₦4.5 billion when he assumed office in 2019 to approximately ₦18 billion.
He argued that wages and government revenues should therefore be considered in terms of purchasing power rather than nominal increases.
Makinde similarly recalled that a 65-kilometre road awarded by his administration in 2019 cost less than ₦9 billion, saying delivering comparable infrastructure today would cost substantially more.
The governor said his economic programme would focus on improving purchasing power and productive capacity rather than relying on higher nominal government revenues as evidence of prosperity.
On petroleum products, however, Makinde resisted Okpe’s attempts to extract a campaign promise around a particular pump price, maintaining that the responsible approach was first to establish and disclose the actual pricing components.
He nevertheless insisted that greater transparency and the removal of corruption and inefficiencies from the system would result in Nigerians paying substantially less for fuel.
Demola Ojo
Follow us on:
