A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr Olisa Agbakoba, has urged presidential candidates in the forthcoming 2027 election to tell Nigerians how they will reduce fuel price, possibly to N400 per litre.
He noted that the removal of fuel subsidy increased transportation cost and prices of goods and services.
He added that it subsequently increased hardship among Nigerians.
He spoke at Energy Conference 2026 of Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) in Lagos on Thursday.
Agbakoba, who received excellence award for Petroleum Governance Reform & Resource Sovereignty Advocate of the Year, (2026), urged President Bola Tinubu to relinquish his portfolio as Minister of Petroleum Resources.
He also canvassed the collapse of Ministries of Power, Petroleum Resources (Oil) and Gas to one ministry to be called Ministry of Energy.
He said: “It is time to manage the electricity, I think we talked about electricity, gas, crude, into all overall ministry, called the Ministry of Energy.
“I think, we need to keep in mind this. This divestment that is taking place.It’s going to be exact same problem that we discussed. You start to build a 20-story unit without a foundation. So all these guys that have come here as sponsors, how many of them bother to do legal inquiry of what you are trying to do? So these are some of the issues that I think we need to think about.
“All of you here are affected by the cost of energy. Why couldn’t you talk about it? There is a relationship. There is something called subsidy. Yes or no? Is it frightening? It is. We have a number of presidential candidates. Can we even ask them what they intend to do about subsidy?These are the issues.
“And I see that we are at a conference that concerns crude oil prices. ( So what should be the appropriate price for crude? I challenge your conference to ask today to deal with subsidies, because it is connected to their current cost of living challenges.
“The president (Tinubu) simply said, ‘the subsidy is gone.’ Remember, did he say that subsidy is gone for a particular context? Because I can give you context for those candidates.
“The context was, and I agree with him, the subsidy in petrol was full of corruption, and therefore is gone. For he didn’t say that he will not consider a new price differential, if somebody like Aliko Dangote were to build a refinery.
“Therefore, what would the presidential candidates say to us as they seek out votes. Will they be prepared to tell us that if they become elected, the price differential for crude locally will be $14, internationally will be $100. And therefore, we can buy a petrol for N400.Wouldn’t that be good news? True. Please push that agenda. Let us get up, because I always think my specialty is called development law, which is looking at how growth impacts any aspect of the economy.
“So what has impacted Nigeria today is hunger. And the reason why Nigerians are hungry is that price of petroleum is too high. So we should be looking at that presidential candidate that can make a statement how oil pricing differential outlook will be different.
“My recommended affordable cost is N400 per litre.That is something we should push.”
