Falana says fuel subsidy savings lost to naira devaluation, Tinubu policies
Human rights lawyer Femi Falana argued on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics that the expected savings from removing fuel subsidy were erased by naira devaluation and government neoliberal policies. He stated that by May 29, 2023, when Tinubu announced subsidy removal, no funds had been allocated for it that year—meaning the subsidy had already ended. Falana questioned where the projected $10 billion in annual fuel import savings went, asserting that exchange rate devaluation and other policies absorbed those gains. The claim directly challenges the economic rationale for subsidy removal, which was framed as freeing up funds for development. With the naira weakening from approximately ₦460/$1 in mid-2023 to over ₦1,500/$1 currently, the dollar-denominated savings would indeed lose value in local terms, affecting public assessments of the policy’s impact on inflation and living costs. Given Nigeria’s ongoing cost-of-living crisis, this perspective invites scrutiny of how currency management interacts with fiscal reforms—should policymakers prioritize exchange rate stability alongside subsidy removal to ensure intended savings materialize for public investment?