Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, has said he would moderate petrol pump prices across the country if elected president in 2027 by removing corruption from the subsidy system and improving domestic refining arrangements.
Speaking in an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, 10 September 2026, Obi stated: “We’ll moderate fuel prices all over Nigeria. We will remove corruption from the subsidy. When I remove it, petrol and everything else will go down. We are buying fuel at a high cost.”
He rejected suggestions that the removal of fuel subsidy was the primary driver of poverty or insecurity in Northern Nigeria. According to him, other structural factors were responsible. “The poverty in the North was not worsened by the removal of the fuel subsidy. There are other factors. That is not what is causing insecurity,” he said. Obi argued that agriculture remains the region’s greatest asset and that targeted investment in that sector, alongside education and skills, would deliver more lasting results than a return to the previous subsidy regime.
Obi’s position continues a consistent line he has maintained in recent months. At the Nigerian Bar Association conference in August 2026 he publicly disagreed with African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, who has proposed restoring a form of fuel subsidy. Obi supported the principle of subsidy removal but criticised the handling of the resulting savings. He has repeatedly referenced Federal Government disclosures placing the cumulative savings from subsidy removal and related reforms at about ₦15.8 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025, a figure he has rounded to approximately ₦16 trillion in public comments. He maintains that these resources were not productively redirected into visible improvements in living standards.
Petrol prices have remained elevated since the subsidy was ended on 29 May 2023. The National Bureau of Statistics recorded a national average retail price of ₦1,596.25 per litre in May 2026, representing a 55.31 per cent year-on-year increase from ₦1,027.76 in May 2025. Independent market trackers showed prices fluctuating in the ₦1,200 to ₦1,300 range in early September 2026, with daily averages around ₦1,269 per litre on 10 September according to one monitoring platform. Prices continue to vary by location and are influenced by exchange rates, international crude movements, logistics and the growing contribution of domestic refining.
Obi has argued that as an oil-producing country Nigeria should be able to supply crude regularly to local refineries under competitive arrangements that lower the cost of refined products for domestic consumers. He has linked high current prices to both residual inefficiencies and the broader macroeconomic environment rather than to the absence of subsidy alone. His proposed approach centres on eliminating leakages, ensuring transparent crude-to-refinery supply, and redirecting any fiscal space created into productive sectors, particularly agriculture in the North.
The debate over fuel pricing remains one of the sharpest policy divides ahead of the 2027 election. The Tinubu administration presents subsidy removal as a necessary fiscal reform that has expanded Federation Account allocations and reduced a major structural drain. Atiku’s camp argues for a targeted, production-linked intervention to ease immediate cost-of-living pressure. Obi occupies a middle ground: he accepts the removal but insists the policy’s success must be measured by tangible outcomes for households and by the integrity of how savings are managed.
Whether moderating prices through anti-corruption measures and domestic refining can deliver the relief Obi promises will depend on execution, global oil dynamics and the capacity of local refineries to operate at scale. For now his statement adds a clear, quantified commitment to the growing contest over energy policy and living costs.