FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL AND MITIGATION MEASURES FOR CITIZENS IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT
Recently, there has been a growing demand for global fuel subsidy changes due to concerns expressed by policy-makers in both developed and developing countries. The phenomenon is a widely debated issue in the global communities. This idea of subsidy removal was advocated by World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure fiscal sustainability and market efficiency. The argument of the government for the removal is to enable subsidy money to be reinvested into critical sectors of the economy that have not been performing well, reduce government borrowing, prevent smuggling and security risks, enhance product availability, and make provision for more social infrastructures, for the need of the citizens. The removal of the fuel subsidy in May 2023 by the government led to serious crisis due to unprecedented price hike of the product and unbearable inflationary spiral in transportation fares, food stuff, school fees, high level of poverty, and full-blown crises, organized by different movements such as Labour Unions and pressure groups, across the nation. The violence that engulfed the nation, led to the death and arrest of some protesters who felt that the government ought to have provided for mitigation measures in form of palliatives to cushion the negative impacts of the fuel removal on the citizens. The aim of this study was to find out the socio-economic and political impacts of subsidy removal on the nation and citizens’ welfare. The research adopted content analysis by using secondary data collected from texts, newspapers, gazette, and articles. It is from this expository study that conclusion and policy recommendations were made.
Keywords: Subsidy removal, mitigation measures, citizens welfare, inflation, Nigeria