Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has made an allegation against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He accused IMF and the World Bank of compelling Nigeria to remove petrol subsidies
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Falana argued that the removal was not a locally designed policy but an externally imposed condition.
“There’s no way you can remove subsidies completely; no country in the entire world has abolished subsidies completely,” he said. “Even leading Western countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, France and others subsidise electricity, agriculture and many aspects of people’s lives. It was the World Bank and the IMF that insisted the government must remove all subsidies.”
President Bola Tinubu announced the end of petrol subsidies on May 29, 2023, during his inauguration. Shortly after, the Central Bank of Nigeria unified the foreign exchange market.
Falana said the two policies have worsened inflation, driven up living costs, and deepened economic hardship for millions of Nigerians.
He also criticised the government’s plan to introduce a new five percent fuel surcharge, insisting that funds already owed to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) must first be remitted.
Falana explained that section 14 of the FERMA Act 2007 established a five percent user charge on fuel sales, with 40 percent allocated to federal roads and 60 percent to state roads. He alleged that the funds were never implemented.
“Between 2007 and 2011, FERMA confirmed that no funds were remitted despite deductions from petrol prices at source,” he said. “By 2022, even the Senate confirmed that over one trillion naira was owed to FERMA. Before introducing new levies, the government must tell Nigerians what happened to the earlier deductions.”
He warned that imposing the new surcharge could amount to multiple taxation and further burden already struggling citizens.
Falana also urged an end to the “dollarisation” of the economy, noting that rejecting the naira for local transactions is a criminal offence.
