President Muhammad Buhari led the opposition party, the all progressive congress (APC), in strong opposition to the elimination of petrol subsidies before winning the 2015 Presidential Election.
President Buhari’s argument at the time was that there was no subsidy on petrol and that the government then under President Goodluck Jonathan was corrupt and was looking for ways to fraudulently enrich themselves at the expense of the Nigerian people.
President Buhari is leaving Nigeria with the country’s highest subsidizing petrol budget in history, eight years down the road and just days before the end of his two terms as president.
According to the Nigeria extractive industries transparency initiative (neiti) oil and gas industry reports, the cost of petrol subsidies from 2015 to 2020 was N1.99 trillion.