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ADC warns Tinubu against 15% fuel import levy, cites rising economic hardship
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has issued a stern warning to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu regarding the potential consequences of adding to Nigerians’ economic burden through his endorsement of a 15 per cent import levy on petroleum and diesel products.
The opposition political organization contends that this additional taxation will intensify the already critical cost-of-living situation and potentially drive the populace toward widespread unrest.
Through a declaration issued by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, the ADC recognized the merit in promoting domestic refining capacity while maintaining that such measures should not compromise citizens’ quality of life.
READ ALSO: Fuel Tax: Tinubu taking Nigerians to unknown destination, he’s lost!, says ADC
The party argues that implementing additional charges on imported petroleum products during a period when Nigerians are ‘suffocating’ under the weight of the government’s economic reforms reflects ‘insensitivity and poor judgement’.
The ADC issued a stark warning that this measure could drive petrol costs beyond N1,000 per litre, creating catastrophic effects for households, transportation operators, agricultural workers, and small-scale enterprises.
“From all indications, this new levy is likely to push the pump price of petrol beyond N1,000 per litre. If this happens, life would become even more unbearable for families, commuters, transporters, farmers, and small businesses already struggling under the weight of fuel subsidy removal without social protection and currency devaluation without safeguards,” Abdullahi said.
The organization rejected the administration’s assertion that the taxation would safeguard domestic production as ‘flawed’, pointing to the Port Harcourt refinery’s failure merely five months following a $1.5 billion renovation project that generated a ₦366.2 billion deficit.
“What has become clear to us is that the Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda is, at best, a trial-and-error system and, at worst, a cynical, self-serving agenda that has no consideration for the ordinary people of Nigeria,” the party said.
The ADC charged the current administration with intensifying poverty through inappropriately timed economic strategies that emphasize fiscal experimentation rather than public welfare. The party observed that despite official proclamations of economic advancement, Nigerian citizens’ lived experiences present a contrasting picture.
“While the government continues to push the narrative of economic progress, food, rent, and transport, not to mention school fees, continue to be priced out of the reach of ordinary Nigerians.
“If the government continues with this latest tax attack, it will further compound the people’s suffering,” Abdullahi said.
Consequently, the organization called for swift withdrawal of the measure, labeling it as ‘ill-conceived and anti-people’. It maintained that economic expansion which condemns the majority to hardship lacks both sustainability and ethical foundation.
“The ADC therefore firmly opposes this ill-conceived import duty and warns the government not to push the people to the wall. We demand that it be reversed immediately. Nigerians deserve a government that plans, not one that panics,” the party declared.
Questioning the federal administration’s capability in managing national refineries, the ADC argued that penalizing importers who have sustained the energy market despite governmental inefficiency is unjust.
“A government that cannot run its own refineries has no business taxing those who keep the country running with their sweat and blood. President Tinubu must understand that economic patriotism cannot be enforced through pain,” Abdullahi said.
While affirming its backing for private sector participation in the petroleum industry, the ADC emphasized that energy sector transformations must be introduced progressively and supported by transparent investment in domestic refining alongside social safety nets for at-risk populations.
“If the goal is energy security and domestic refining, let there first be transparent investment in local capacity. Until then, any tax imposed to discourage import will only lead to people paying more for imported fuel, which still stands at 60 percent of supply, a gap that cannot be substituted overnight,” Abdullahi said.
The organization urged President Tinubu’s administration to exhibit understanding and strategic thinking in economic policymaking, cautioning that decisions motivated by urgency or external pressure would only deepen public disconnection.
“Nigerians are tired of paying for the government’s inefficiency. It is time to govern with compassion and competence, not experiments that turn citizens into casualties,” the party added.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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