AAC presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has promised to bring back fuel subsidy if he wins the 2027 presidential election, challenging the Federal Government’s position that the subsidy has been removed.
Sowore made the declaration during an interview on ARISE News on Tuesday while presenting his proposed approach to Nigeria’s economic challenges.
He argued that the government is still providing subsidies in different forms, despite officially ending the petrol subsidy regime. According to him, the support has simply been given different names.
The former presidential candidate also claimed that the naira is being indirectly subsidised through government interventions aimed at maintaining its value against the dollar.
Sowore said he does not consider subsidy itself to be the major problem, arguing that the real issue is how government benefits are distributed. He maintained that wealthy Nigerians and businesses receive a larger share of government incentives than ordinary citizens.
He also linked the removal of fuel subsidy to the decline in the naira and the economic pressure experienced by Nigerians, arguing that the policy has contributed to worsening living conditions.
Sowore said his administration would adopt a different economic direction if elected and reject policies that, in his view, have allowed poverty to become widespread.
When asked if he would restore fuel subsidy, he said:
“Absolutely.”
Explaining his position, Sowore added:
“In the first place, they are still paying subsidy. They just changed the name of whatever they call it. They are subsidising not only petrol—because they don’t have enough and can’t produce locally—they are also subsidising the Naira. That’s one thing they will never tell you.”
On the naira, he said:
“The reason the Naira is at a certain, you know, rate to a dollar, is because it’s being quietly and secretly subsidised.”
Sowore further argued:
“There’s no country in the world that don’t subsidise their poor.”
He added:
“In fact, the people that get the most subsidy in Nigeria is not the poor, it’s the rich.”
On his proposed economic changes, the AAC candidate said:
“There’s no need for us to sit down here and ask, ‘Oh, what would you do differently?’ Of course, what we have to do differently, first and foremost, is to get rid of this old mentality and the ideas that brought poverty to become a standard, you know, a household name in Nigeria.”
