Nigerian comedian Seyi Law has voiced his support for President Bola Tinubu’s decision to remove the fuel subsidy, despite the hardships it has caused for many citizens.

He believes this move will ultimately benefit the country and argues that it should have been implemented earlier. Reflecting on past events, Seyi Law stated that had the subsidy been lifted in 2012, Nigerians would have already begun to recover from the associated pains.

He recalled that during the 2012 protests against the subsidy removal, he was one of the few celebrities opposing the anti-subsidy movement, highlighting comments from then-Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala about the unsustainable financial burden of the subsidy. Fuel subsidies, introduced in the 1970s to mitigate the impact of rising oil prices, have become a significant fiscal challenge.

He said:

“Fuel subsidy should have been long gone. If it had gone in 2012 we would have gone through the pain process and by now we would have been healing,” he said.

“In 2012, I was the only celebrity that went on stage to kick against the anti-fuel subsidy movement. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala came out to say that the nation could not afford to pay salaries. “We were borrowing to pay salaries.”

The recent removal has led to increased fuel prices, resulting in higher transportation costs and prices for goods and services.