Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has firmly rejected calls by some politicians to restore the fuel subsidy regime, urging Nigerians—particularly the youth—to resist proposals that would return the country to what it described as an "unsustainable system that consumed trillions of naira" for four decades without delivering lasting benefits. NANS President, Comrade Babatunde Akinteye, made the position known on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, in Akure, Ondo State, while speaking at a youth summit themed "Unlocking Ondo State Students' Potentials for Economic Growth".
Akinteye said the debate should shift from restoration to accountability, stressing that the focus should be on how resources saved from subsidy removal could be effectively deployed to improve the lives of Nigerians, particularly students and youths. "Nigeria has tried fuel subsidy for 40 years and it has failed. Every politician, every economist, everybody has said we cannot sustain the fuel subsidy," he declared. He argued that rather than canvassing a return to subsidy payments, Nigerians should demand transparency and accountability in the utilisation of funds being saved from its removal.
"We should monitor the money being saved from the removal of fuel subsidy and ensure it is channelled into projects and programmes that benefit all Nigerians instead of returning to a system where a few individuals cornered resources meant for the entire country," Akinteye said. He recalled that during the subsidy era, Nigerians still experienced persistent fuel scarcity despite huge government spending on subsidy payments.
The NANS president linked the current pressure on fuel prices to developments in the global oil market, including international conflicts, but cautioned Nigerians against using the current economic hardship as a reason to return to subsidy. He argued that restoring fuel subsidy would place an unbearable financial burden on the country, questioning where the resources would come from to sustain such payments. "Previous administrations often resorted to borrowing to finance fuel subsidy and, in some instances, to pay workers' salaries. Today, loans are largely tied to specific capital projects rather than recurrent expenditure such as salaries or fuel subsidy. We should not return to that era," he declared.
Akinteye acknowledged the hardship caused by the reform but stressed that the real test of subsidy removal was not merely the savings accruing to government but how effectively the freed resources were deployed to improve citizens' welfare. He cited the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) as one of the intervention programmes that had benefited many students since the removal of fuel subsidy. "For instance, you have seen some of the programmes the present administration is doing and one of them is NELFUND. That, me, clearly, I am supporting because I know what NELFUND is doing to Nigerian students," he said.
The NANS president said anyone aspiring to lead Nigeria should present practical plans on how savings from subsidy removal would be invested to improve the lives of citizens instead of promising to restore the subsidy. He described proposals by some political gladiators to reintroduce fuel subsidy as "political rhetoric rather than realistic economic policy". "Every aspirant willing to rule Nigeria and not run or, perhaps, ruin her must come to national debates with clear and sustainable policies that do not just address the immediate needs or comfort of our people, but rather, policies that best shape our country and can stand the test of time," he said.
NANS also challenged presidential aspirants to come to national debates with concrete economic blueprints that would not merely provide temporary comfort but establish a sustainable foundation for national development. Akinteye maintained that any proposal to restore subsidy without a clear plan for resolving the structural problems that undermined the policy in the first place could only recreate the same crisis. "This is why calls or promises for the outright return of subsidy, without a clear structural framework for addressing the fundamental weaknesses that made the policy unsustainable in the first place, amount to little more than a political response to a genuine economic challenge," he said.
The student leader's comments come as the debate over fuel subsidy intensifies ahead of the 2027 elections, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, proposing to restore a targeted subsidy if elected. The All Progressives Congress has attacked Atiku's plan, warning that it could reverse economic gains and threaten workers' wages and education funding. However, NANS has made its position clear: the country cannot afford to return to a system in which huge public resources were devoted to fuel subsidy while many states struggled to meet their financial obligations and critical infrastructure remained inadequate.
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