Minister Oyedele, Where Is the Dividend of Our Sacrifice? By Labaran Saleh

The Finance Minister’s explanation for Nigeria’s continued borrowing does not absolve government — it deepens the indictment

Let us, for the sake of argument, take the Finance Minister at his word.

Speaking recently on why Nigeria continues to borrow despite the much-celebrated removal of fuel subsidy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele explained that the savings generated from that painful policy decision — and from the foreign exchange reforms that accompanied it — were never meant to sit idle in government coffers. They were, he said, absorbed: by debt servicing, by legacy obligations, by the new minimum wage, by student loans, and by other critical government expenditures.

Very well. Let us accept that explanation in full and follow it to its logical conclusion.

Because what the Minister has just told Nigerians, with considerable confidence and without apparent irony, is this: the sacrifices you made changed nothing structural about how this government manages money. The fiscal space was created and immediately filled by the same pressures that existed before. The borrowing continues. The debt climbs. And the burden remains yours.

That is not a defence of government policy. That is an indictment of it.

For more than three years, Nigerians have been told a consistent story. Fuel subsidy removal was the difficult but unavoidable surgery required to restore fiscal discipline. It would create the breathing room that government needed to invest in infrastructure, reduce waste, and put the nation’s finances on a sustainable trajectory. The pain was real, but it was purposeful. Citizens were asked to endure, and they did.

Petrol prices surged. Transportation costs multiplied. Inflation deepened….