The Presidency has issued a response to former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi over his recent remarks questioning the utilization of fuel subsidy savings under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Amaechi, speaking in May at his 60th birthday event in Abuja, expressed concerns about what he perceived as a misdirection of national resources, alleging that subsidy removal gains were being siphoned into “private pockets.”
“If I were president, yes, I would pursue some of the policies they are pursuing, but ask what the failure is: the failure is that the gains of those policies are in their private pockets,” he said. “At one point, we were paying between four to five trillion naira as subsidy; where is the money now? If it had been injected into the economy, you would not be hearing complaints.”
In a detailed rebuttal posted online, Special Adviser to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, knocked the former Rivers State governor, calling his claims misleading and politically motivated.
“More than two years after his primary election loss, it appears Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has not gotten over the legitimate pain of defeat,” Olusegun wrote. He accused Amaechi of aligning with opposition forces and “resurfacing on the political scene” with “outlandish comments, claims and falsehoods against the current administration.”
Addressing Amaechi’s claims regarding fuel subsidy savings, the presidential aide said the ex-minister was fully aware of the fiscal damage caused by the subsidy regime, noting that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) had stopped remitting revenues and resorted to advance crude sales to cover costs.
“In 2022 alone, the FG’s subsidy bill was ₦4.39 trillion — nearly half of what Nigeria spent on petrol subsidies over a nine-year span from 2006 to 2015,” he said.
He explained that the real gain of subsidy removal was not in direct cash savings but in halting “unsustainable borrowing” and stopping the mortgaging of future oil revenues. Olusegun further revealed that since January 2025, NNPCL began remitting 50% of crude oil revenues to the federation account, significantly increasing monthly disbursements to states.
“These tiers [of government] are not private pockets. Thanks to increased allocations, 33 states have repaid ₦1.85 trillion out of their ₦5.82 trillion in domestic debt — more than 30% repayment,” he said, describing it as a direct benefit of subsidy reforms.
On the issue of foreign exchange reforms, Olusegun defended the decision to float the naira, noting that the previous multiple exchange rate system cost Nigeria over ₦13.2 trillion between 2021 and 2023 in what he termed “FX subsidy losses” — money he said “went exclusively to private pockets.”
He added that under Tinubu’s administration, foreign reserves rose from $3.99 billion in 2023 to $23.11 billion in 2024, while over $10 billion was used to clear external obligations, including debts to international airlines.
“Nigeria is no longer on the IATA list of countries with blocked funds. This was possible due to increased FX liquidity,” he said.
Olusegun also accused Amaechi of turning a blind eye to his own legacy in office and warned that attempts to undermine the current administration with misinformation would not go unchallenged.
“This administration is cleaning up the mess it inherited, including from individuals like Mr. Amaechi, who now seek to play the saint,” the statement added.