Trending 
Nigerian film director and producer Dickson Iroegbu says President Bola Tinubu has “already defeated himself” through what he described as his administration’s failures, arguing that the hardship linked to the removal of the petrol subsidy has become a major political liability for the government.
Speaking in an interview with News Central TV on Monday, Iroegbu said the central problem was not the decision to remove the subsidy but how the policy was managed and the resources that followed.
“Tinubu has already defeated himself by the failure of his government. He has already defeated himself,” Iroegbu said.
President Tinubu announced the end of the petrol subsidy during his inauguration at Eagle Square in Abuja on May 29, 2023. The policy has remained a major point of political and economic debate as Nigerians contend with higher transport, food and living costs.
Iroegbu argued that corruption associated with the previous subsidy regime, rather than subsidy itself, was one of the fundamental problems that should inform the debate over whether the policy should return.
“The problem is not the removal of subsidy. The problem is the mismanagement of the process from the removal of subsidy, the corruption,” he said.
“Subsidy in itself is not an issue. It is the corruption in the subsidy claims that is the main challenge.”
He also criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s proposal to restore petrol subsidy, describing it as a “political gimmick” designed to capitalise on the economic hardship facing Nigerians.
According to Iroegbu, returning to the previous subsidy arrangement without addressing its structural weaknesses and alleged abuses could recreate the policy’s problems. He went further, accusing Atiku of effectively proposing a return to a system vulnerable to corruption.
“Atiku Abubakar is saying, ‘I’m going to bring back corruption,’ and it’s going to be institutionalised even further,” Iroegbu said.
Turning to former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, Iroegbu drew a distinction between Obi’s position and Atiku’s proposal. He said Obi supports subsidy removal but has questioned how the resulting public resources are managed and distributed.
Iroegbu argued that proceeds from subsidy removal should be transparently deployed to improve Nigerians’ lives rather than placed at the disposal of political officeholders without sufficient accountability.
He said Obi’s position was that “the resources of the Nigerian people” generated from subsidy removal should not be “handed over to oppressors in various states in the name of governance.”
The remarks come as petrol subsidy and the management of savings from its removal increasingly feature in Nigeria’s political debate, with questions over whether the government’s economic reforms have delivered sufficient benefits to households facing higher living costs.
