Presidency lectures Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi on difference between “fuel subsidy and discount”

Presidency has been under fire from opposition political parties notably Atiku Abubakar’s African Democratic Congress, ADC and Mr Peter Obi’s National Democratic Congress, NDC over Thursday’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Economy’s briefs on steps taken to alleviate fuel price hardship.

Both opposition who are presidential candidates queried the measurements, arguing that it was still fuel subsidy, urging the presidency to come up clean instead of dangling around.

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Reacting, the presidential Spokesman, Bayo Onanuga took the opposition leaders to lecture theater to explain the difference between ‘Margin Discount and a Subsidy’ arguing that both are not the same.

Explaining the Minister’s brief on his verified X, Bayo said: “𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐞

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Every marketer adds a margin to the price it pays for the fuel it sells. A margin discount means the retailer chooses to take a smaller margin, or no margin at all for a period, and passes the saving to the customer. The cost of the discount is borne by the retailer alone.

A subsidy is different. It is when government pays part of the price the consumer would otherwise pay. That money comes from public revenue — funds that would otherwise go to salaries, schools, hospitals and infrastructure. That is the regime this administration ended in 2023, and it is not coming back.

CAPITAL POST on Thursday October 8, 2026 reported that Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Economy, Mr Taiwo Oyedele outlined ten steps to mitigate hardship as a result of cost of fuel for one month.

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