FIJ
In his inaugural speech as Nigeria’s fifth president in the fourth republic, Bola Ahmed Tinubu said there was no provision for subsidy in the national budget and “it would have to go”.
In a knee-jerk reaction, marketers and operators instantly increased fuel pump price from N210 to N510.
The announcement led to an astronomical increase in the prices of commodities and transportation fares also skyrocketed. With the increase, commuters were forced to pay double the amounts they used to spend on transportation daily.
Inflation rate in Nigeria also rose to 22.79 percent.
As Nigerians were gradually coming to terms with their new reality, news again emerged that oil marketers had further increased fuel pump price to N617 per litre on Tuesday.
While addressing the public, Mele Kyari, the managing director and chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), attributed the latest pump price increase to market forces.
The latest action meant that fuel price has increased by approximately 300 percent since Tinubu assumed office as president in May.
Here is a timeline of how pump prices have been increased by the various administrations since Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999.
OLUSEGUN OBASANJO (N20 IN 1999, N75 BY 2007)
Before handing over power to Olusegun Obasanjo as Nigeria’s first democratically elected president in the fourth republic on May 29, 1999, fuel price under the government of Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, the country’s last military head of state, stood at N20 per litre.
After spending a year in office, Obasanjo’s government increased the price from N20 to N30 on June 1, 2000. Following a nationwide protest by the organised labour, the administration was forced to reduce the price to N22 on June 8.
