Donald Duke dismisses fuel subsidy as scam, says petrol could sell for N200/litre

…we’re energy-blessed; the people should feel their blessings

Former Cross River State governor and presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has dismissed Nigeria’s petrol-subsidy controversy as a scam, arguing that petrol could sell for about N200 per litre if the country properly harnessed the other products derived from crude oil.

Duke’s position provides a fresh counterpoise to the competing proposals of President Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi over the future of petrol subsidy.

Tinubu abolished the subsidy in May 2023 and has defended the decision as necessary to free public funds for development. Atiku has promised to restore a targeted subsidy to reduce living costs, while Obi supports its removal but wants the savings transparently invested in productive and social sectors.

Duke, however, rejected the premise on which the debate has been conducted.

“Look, I don’t believe there’s any subsidy in fuel,” he said. “For a barrel of crude oil, there are about seven by-products. The two consequential ones are diesel and petrol—PMS and AGO—and kerosene, aviation fuel and all those things.

“You sell them at commercial rates, okay? Work it out. You can almost sell petrol today at N200 a litre, not the N1,000-plus.

“So that thing about subsidy, I think, is the biggest scam that has been perpetrated, maybe globally.”
The former governor said it was inexplicable that Nigeria remained energy-poor despite possessing virtually every known source of energy.

“You’re an energy-blessed country,” Duke said. “You have all known forms of energy existing in Nigeria—from the crudest, which is human labour, to hydrocarbons, solar, hydro, uranium and now lithium.

“You have all those things. Why are we still energy-poor? Because the political will is not there. But even beyond the political will, we’re not thinking through this.”

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He said Nigeria’s continued flaring of natural gas while households, businesses and industries struggled with high energy costs exposed the contradictions in the country’s economic management.

“We easily flare two billion cubic feet of gas a day,” he said. “That is equivalent to 20 million litres of diesel. If you had a turbine to power all of Africa, it would not consume 20 million litres of diesel daily.

“So, it’s akin to the abundance of water while the fish is thirsty.”

Duke said every country was expected to exploit its comparative advantages rather than use international prices to justify hardship at home.

“When I hear excuses like, ‘Oh, it’s cheaper in America,’ or, ‘We’re cheaper than it is in America,’ every country has its own endowments,” he said.

“You’ve got to use what you’ve got to get what you want. We are an energy-blessed country. The people should feel their blessings.”

He also questioned why Nigeria supplied gas to other West African countries while remaining unable to meet its domestic energy requirements.
“You have a West African Gas Pipeline, but you don’t have any self-sufficiency in gas in your country,” Duke said. “There’s something wrong somewhere. We’re not thinking.”

He maintained that Nigeria’s energy crisis was neither inevitable nor beyond solution, but the government must develop its resources with citizens’ welfare and industrial productivity as the principal objectives.

“Why are we still energy-poor?” he asked. “The political will is not there. We’re not thinking through our problems.”