Next powerful Nigerians Tinubu may fight if fuel subsidy is successfully removed and why

President Bola Tinubu kept his word by hitting the ground running from his inaugural speech as he promised during his campaign in the 2023 general election.

Governments in the past have talked about the threat and danger of the fuel subsidy to Nigeria's economy but have not been able to remove it as marketers are quick to increase the price of the commodity as well as make it scarce, which mostly leads to protests from citizens.

However, Tinubu's administration seemed to be determined in removing the fuel subsidy and ensure that it never appears in the Nigeria economic narrative again with the manner of its approach.

Therefore, if Tinubu succeeded in defeating the subsidy regime, the next target of the new government could be the Bureau de Change, another system that benefitted only a few and negatively affected the country's exchange rate.

Bureau de Change is that set of influential Nigerians who trade dollars at the "black market". These people get dollars in large quantities from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), using influences and lobbyists, and resell them at higher prices on the black market.

As of Wednesday, May 31, the official exchange rate of N1 to $1 is 461.5 while it is traded at the black market for N‎745.

On his first day in office, Vice President Kashim Shettima, while addressing journalists at the state house on Tuesday, May 30, noted that they envisaged a fierce resistance to the new policy but the new government has the will to break the record.

According to Shettima, fuel subsidies must go and multiple exchange rates must stop. He added that if Nigeria did not end the subsidy, the subsidy will end Nigeria.

Either Tinubu will become the victor in the battle he had set for himself and his administration lies on the shoulder of time.

This is due to the fact that the Bureau de Change system is as old as the subsidy, if not older, and it has become so normalized that fighting it would look like de-employing a certain set of people in society.