{"id":1251,"date":"2026-09-20T12:13:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T12:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/?p=1251"},"modified":"2026-09-20T12:13:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T12:13:57","slug":"economist-proposes-increased-fuel-supply-to-cushion-effect-of-high-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/?p=1251","title":{"rendered":"Economist proposes increased fuel supply to cushion effect of high prices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Economy<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

By Lucy Ogalue<\/p>\n

Abuja
\nDr Nathaniel Oladunjoye, an economist, has urged the Federal Government to increase fuel supply to cushion Nigerians from rising petrol prices.<\/p>\n

Oladunjoye, a Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.<\/p>\n

He said government\u2019s intervention was necessary because rising petrol prices were worsening poverty and reducing welfare of Nigerians.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the policy of the government is driving people into poverty, penury, and driving people into multidimensional poverty, then the government must take caution.<\/p>\n

\u201cNigeria, as an oil-producing country, should ensure that its citizens remain primary beneficiaries of the nation\u2019s natural resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs such, government policies should improve citizens\u2019 welfare rather than make vulnerable Nigerians worse off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to the economist, the government can intervene without necessarily returning to the previous petrol subsidy regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government does not want to reintroduce subsidy, fine. But the government can also oversupply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government can increase the quantity of petroleum supplied to the Dangote Refinery while requiring the product to be sold at an agreed price.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relief is coming in the form of more supply of the product to Dangote than pushing the continuous increase to the income of the citizens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said such intervention would provide relief to households already facing declining incomes and increasing transportation and living costs.<\/p>\n

Oladunjoye also urged the government to strengthen border controls and provide relevant agencies with equipment and personnel to tackle fuel smuggling.<\/p>\n

He said government should not transfer the cost of porous borders to Nigerians through higher petrol prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cRising petrol prices have broad effects because transportation costs influence the prices of food and other goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resulting increases can worsen poverty, inequality and unemployment while placing further pressure on households.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, let us address the issue of poverty. Let us address the issue of inequality. Let us address the issue of unemployment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said government\u2019s primary responsibility was to improve citizens\u2019 welfare and prevent policies that would make vulnerable Nigerians worse off.<\/p>\n

He said that Nigerians should be primary beneficiaries of the country\u2019s oil resources, particularly given the relatively low income levels of many citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can a worker earning N77,000 minimum wage cope when petrol costs more than N1,400 per litre.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government should intervene when essential commodity prices rise excessively, because even capitalist countries intervene in their economies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no more rational justification when the welfare of the people keeps declining,\u201d Oladunjoye said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Nathaniel Oladunjoye, an economist, has urged the Federal Government to increase fuel supply to cushion Nigerians from rising petrol prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[59],"tags":[739,742,740,741,743],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","tag-economits","tag-effect","tag-fuel","tag-supply","tag-highprices"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1252,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251\/revisions\/1252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}