A former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has revealed that late former President Muhammadu Buhari threatened to sack him if his push to remove petrol subsidy during Buhari’s tenure failed.
Kachikwu, who served as minister between 2016 and 2019, made the disclosure on Monday during a virtual business mentorship lecture series organised by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board.
He recalled that his biggest challenge as Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in 2015 was the nationwide fuel queues that crippled economic activities.
Kachikwu noted that despite sleepless nights and efforts to ease the crisis, much of the subsidised petrol imported into Nigeria was being smuggled across the borders, making scarcity inevitable.
“The greatest challenge I had when I resumed as GMD was the issue of long queues at petrol stations. Very few Nigerians realise how traumatic it is for a minister or a GMD who is committed to wake up and find the whole country grounded. Of course, I would go to filling stations, try to help them fill, and ensure there were no unnecessary traffic obstructions. At the end of the day, every time that happened, I had no sleep,” he said.
According to him, investigations showed that most of the subsidised products were diverted across borders.
He explained that despite collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service and other agencies, the leakages persisted because the NNPC lacked the political and security capacity to police the borders.
Kachikwu said he repeatedly asked Buhari to approve a review of pump prices, but the President resisted due to his populist stance.
“I went to the President many times and said, ‘Look, I need to move up on price.’ He resisted very much because of his populist position. Eventually, he said, ‘Okay, you know what? I’ll leave you to take the risk. If it works, fine. If it doesn’t, I’ll fire you.’ That was good enough for me—and I did,” he recounted.
The former minister said he introduced a policy of “price modulation,” allowing petrol prices to reflect international market realities.
He explained that the slight adjustment not only removed the subsidy but also cleared fuel queues nationwide within 48 hours.
“That singular price adjustment removed the subsidy. There was no more subsidy. And within 48 hours, magically, every queue in the country stopped. It never happened again until I left. That was how I could at least sleep better, and the government made more money,” he said.
Kachikwu also disclosed that he refused to settle billions of naira in outstanding subsidy arrears he inherited, insisting that most claims were unverifiable.
“We didn’t pay the arrears of subsidy because my position was that I could not audit the transparency of the subsidy claims. So, I preferred not to deal with those issues,” he added.
He noted that while subsidy removal by the President Bola Tinubu administration was inevitable, it should have been accompanied by clear plans for refineries, infrastructure, transporters, and oil-producing communities.
