Good morning,
The Federal Government has put a price on the debate the country cannot stop having. Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele says restoring the petrol subsidy would cost over ₦20 trillion annually, push petrol to ₦2,000 per litre, and send the naira toward ₦3,000 to the dollar. Even a ₦500-per-litre proposal would cost ₦16 trillion a year, nearly everything the Federation Account shared among all three tiers of government in 2025. The NLC has given the government a two-week ultimatum from 9 October, demanding petrol at ₦500 and a minimum wage review. Peter Obi’s campaign has defended his position on restoring subsidy, saying he would remove the corruption and retain the support, a U-turn from his earlier stance that the mismanaged savings were not a reason to bring it back. Two-thirds of Nigerians want some form of fuel support restored, according to SBM polling, which tells you everything about the politics of 2027. The government’s response is a 30-day discount on petrol sold through NNPC filling stations, with priority for public transporters, plus a proposed ₦1,350 per litre ceiling on the ex-gantry price. It is not a policy. It is a pause. And it does not reach the private motorist or the market woman paying higher transport fares.
The courts and the streets delivered their own verdicts this week. A Federal High Court dismissed Nasir El-Rufai’s suit seeking to restrain the DSS, EFCC and ICPC from freezing his accounts, calling it speculative and an abuse of process. The former Kaduna governor, now aligned with the ADC, will fight in other courts. In Enugu, villagers paraded an elderly woman accused of using charms to kill, forcing her to swear an oath at a fresh grave. No evidence, no formal complaint, no police investigation, just a mob that decided her guilt. In Imo, the family of an abducted corps member has contradicted the police claim that the Owerri-Onitsha rescue ended without payment. The mother says the family paid ₦6 million in dollars after the kidnappers reduced their demand from ₦50 million per person to ₦15 million, and then accepted ₦6 million. The police say no ransom was paid. Both cannot be true. What is true is that a family converted naira to dollars on a kidnapper’s instruction to bring their child home, and that the kidnappers are still out there.
On the economic front, the contradictions keep compounding. Moove, the mobility fintech that launched in Lagos six years ago and raised over $400 million, is exiting Nigeria and transferring ₦35 billion worth of vehicles to its drivers, waiving all remaining payment obligations. The drivers who qualified gain outright ownership. The employees face job losses. The model worked when the naira was stable. It failed when the currency collapsed.
The world of culture and the culture of the powerful still find ways to make news. Emeka Rollas, the former President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, has issued a public apology to Regina Daniels and her husband, Senator Ned Nwoko, over remarks he made during a media appearance. He did not specify what he said, but he asked for forgiveness and said he had reached out privately. The couple has not responded publicly. It is a reminder that in Nigeria, public figures rarely apologise, and when they do, the damage is often already done.
A subsidy bill that costs more than the entire Federation Account. A two-week ultimatum. A dismissed suit. A woman paraded at a grave. A ransom paid in dollars. A fintech giving away cars on its way out. These are not separate stories. They are the same story: a country where the maths of survival, the politics of fuel, and the price of a child’s freedom all land on the same people, and the systems meant to carry them keep falling short.
Warmly,
Lolade