President Bola Tinubu has said he has no regrets about removing Nigeria’s fuel subsidy, insisting that the country will not return to the policy.

Tinubu made the declaration on Monday evening at the ‘Together till 2027: An Evening with Original City Boy’ forum organised by the City Boy Movement alongside the Relax-Tinubu-Is-Fixing-Nigeria movement.

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The President recalled that he removed the petrol subsidy on his first day in office, arguing that the country was heading towards bankruptcy and could no longer afford the cost.

“I came, and I removed the subsidy the first day,” Tinubu said, adding that there was “nothing left to pay subsidy.”

He also took a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his proposal to reintroduce an oil subsidy if elected president in 2027.

Using a biblical analogy, Tinubu likened the removal of the subsidy to the Israelites’ departure from Egypt under Moses.

“You cannot ask Moses to go back to Egypt,” he said, insisting that Nigeria would not return to the old system.

“We wake up with ideas, original thoughts, and deep thinking to move this country forward. With your energy, your support, Nigeria will never go back to Egypt. No regrets,” he added.

Tinubu said his administration had taken difficult decisions over the past three years, arguing that the measures were necessary to reposition the economy.

He said Nigeria had inherited significant financial challenges, including debts owed to airlines, depleted foreign reserves and excessive currency printing.

“We understood that a nation cannot borrow its way to greatness,” the President said.

Tinubu also urged young Nigerians to obtain their Permanent Voter Cards and participate in the January 16, 2027 presidential election.

He asked his supporters to take the message of the administration’s reforms to campuses, markets and villages, saying they were ultimately campaigning for their own future.

On the Students Loan Act, which he signed in 2023, Tinubu said he equally had no regrets, noting that more than one million students had received support through the Nigerian Education Loan Fund.

The President announced the removal of the petrol subsidy on May 29, 2023. The pump price subsequently rose from about N180 per litre to about N620 and later to roughly N1,200 a year after the announcement.

Atiku had said in August that he would bring back an oil subsidy if elected, although he proposed a capped and audited production subsidy tied to domestic refining rather than a return to the previous system.

The Presidency subsequently described the proposal as a return to a “wasteful, corruption-ridden and financially burdensome” system.

Vice President Kashim Shettima, who also spoke at the event, defended the administration’s economic policies, saying the economy could have collapsed without the President’s reforms.

Shettima said the economy grew by 4.43 per cent in the last quarter and claimed that Nigeria’s foreign reserves were hovering around $60 billion.

He acknowledged that Nigerians had experienced hardship but argued that the situation could have been worse without the government’s interventions.

“The President has to be commended, not demonised. Yes, Nigerians have gone through some tough times, but it could have been worse,” Shettima said.

The Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, also praised the City Boy Movement, describing it as a political organisation driven by technology and artificial intelligence.

He urged the movement to use its AI platform to promote Tinubu’s ideology and respond to claims by opposition candidates ahead of the 2027 election.

House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, meanwhile, announced plans to publish an audit of Tinubu’s achievements in his Zaria constituency and called on other political officeholders to account for their contributions under the administration.

Abbas said the audit would identify projects by location, value and status, including those that remained incomplete.

Francis Shoga, Director-General of the City Boy Movement, assured Tinubu that Nigerian youths supporting the group were ready to work and campaign for the administration’s Renewed Hope agenda.