Makinde asks FG to publish petrol pricing template, questions coastal road
- Oyo governor Seyi Makinde, the APM presidential candidate, spoke at a town hall in Uyo on Tuesday.
- He asked the Federal Government to release the figures behind its planned petrol price modulation.
- He also questioned whether the coastal highway and CNG initiative have eased transport costs for Nigerians.
Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has challenged the Federal Government to make public the numbers behind its planned petrol price modulation, saying Nigerians deserve to see how the policy would work before it takes effect.
Makinde, who is the presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in January's election, spoke on Tuesday at the party's South-South town hall meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
He said the government should release its pricing template rather than announce a policy without details. With the template in hand, he argued, Nigerians with the right knowledge could examine the figures and suggest ways to make the policy serve ordinary people.
His remarks come more than three years after the removal of the petrol subsidy.
Questions over mega-projects
Makinde also took aim at two flagship projects of President Bola Tinubu's administration: the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
The highway is planned to run about 700 kilometres along the coastline, linking Lagos in the South-West to Calabar in Cross River State, near the Cameroon border. The government says it will improve transport and boost tourism.
Makinde asked what such projects mean for the average Nigerian. He questioned whether the CNG initiative and the Naira-for-Crude policy have brought down the cost of moving people and goods.
He said the government's programmes are repeatedly described as mega, without clear benefit reaching millions of citizens.
The coastal road has drawn public debate over its cost and whether it can withstand rising sea levels and coastal erosion along the Gulf of Guinea. Tinubu has defended it, describing it at the inauguration of its first section as a road that will outlive everyone alive today.
Makinde's appearance in Uyo is part of his campaign's push through the South-South ahead of the January poll.
What happens next
Whether the government publishes the pricing figures before the election is likely to shape the debate over fuel prices and transport costs in the coming months.
