Tinubu’s aide rebukes Peter Obi over comments on rising fuel prices

Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, has criticized the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, for his recent remarks on Nigeria’s escalating fuel costs.

Olusegun told Obi to stop speaking on matters he does not fully grasp, describing the former governor’s statements as “wrong and embarrassing.”

The comments from Olusegun came in a post on X on Saturday, responding to a statement Obi made on Thursday.

In that statement, Obi blamed Nigeria’s exposure to global oil price fluctuations on the absence of a strategic petroleum reserve and a lack of government foresight.

Obi had highlighted that petrol prices, which were below N1,000 per litre a few weeks ago, had surged past N1,200 per litre, while diesel increased from under N1,000 to over N1,500 per litre.

He attributed the price spikes to geopolitical tensions involving Iran and their ripple effects on the global oil market.

“The reason for this is straightforward: most countries, whether they are oil-producing or non-oil-producing, maintain strategic petroleum reserves to cushion against supply or price shocks.

This means that when there is a disruption in the global oil market, they can release part of these reserves to stabilize supply. However, Nigeria lacks such a buffer, so the impact is felt almost immediately.

The underlying issue is a lack of planning. Countries that engage in planning create buffers against shocks, while those that do not remain vulnerable to them. The old maxim remains true: when a country fails to plan, it has already planned to fail,” Obi said.

Responding, Olusegun rejected Obi’s argument, asserting that the main cause of rising fuel prices is not the absence of a strategic reserve but the deregulation of the fuel market following subsidy removal by the Tinubu administration.

“The recent rise in fuel prices in Nigeria is not primarily because the country lacks a strategic petroleum reserve.

“The more immediate factor is that the fuel market is now largely deregulated following the subsidy removal by the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Olusegun said.

He explained that in a deregulated market, prices reflect global oil trends, exchange rates, shipping costs, and supply risks.

“So when geopolitical tensions involving Iran push global oil prices upward, countries that rely heavily on imported refined products like Nigeria will inevitably feel the effect at the pump. That is simply how an open market behaves,” he added.

Olusegun also disputed Obi’s portrayal of strategic petroleum reserves, noting that even countries with substantial reserves, such as the United States and China, maintain them mainly for emergencies like wars or embargoes, rather than everyday price fluctuations.

“It is also not accurate to suggest that strategic petroleum reserves are tools used to control everyday pump prices.

“Even countries with very large reserves, such as the United States and China, maintain them primarily for serious supply emergencies, wars, embargoes, or major disruptions to global supply chains.

They are not routinely deployed simply because prices move in the global market,” he said.

Acknowledging Nigeria’s long-standing structural challenges, Olusegun argued that reducing the fuel issue to a lack of planning around strategic reserves oversimplifies a more complex reality.

“Nigeria’s real challenge has always been deeper and more structural. For decades, the country has struggled with limited refining capacity and a heavy dependence on imported refined products, despite being one of the world’s major crude oil producers.

That structural imbalance, combined with exchange rate pressures, has consistently made the country vulnerable to global price movements,” he said.

He added that genuine planning would require expanding domestic refining, reinforcing supply chains, stabilizing the foreign exchange environment, and ensuring consistent energy policies.

Olusegun also reminded Obi of his 2023 campaign stance, pointing out that the former governor had publicly supported fuel subsidy removal if elected president.

“It is worth reminding you that during your presidential campaign, you clearly stated that you would remove fuel subsidy if elected.

So the same policy framework that now allows prices to reflect market realities is one you publicly supported,” he said.

He concluded by questioning Obi’s grasp of global energy markets, calling it “frankly embarrassing” for a former governor to make sweeping claims about such a complex issue.

“When someone who once held the office of governor begins to make such sweeping conclusions about a complex global energy market, it is frankly embarrassing.

A former governor should know better than to reduce a multi-layered economic issue to a simplistic talking point,” Olusegun said, urging Obi to refrain from commenting on matters he does not fully understand.