Former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke has promised to slash the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, to N300 per litre if elected president under the platform of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in 2027.
Duke made the pledge during an appearance on Channels Television's Morning Brief, where he criticized the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu and outlined an alternative framework for the petroleum sector.
According to Duke, the current pricing model unfairly exposes citizens to international crude benchmarks despite Nigeria's domestic production capacity.
He called the current subsidy structure a "scam" and advocated for pricing petroleum products strictly based on local production and refining costs.
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"I'm going to price petroleum products for local consumption at production costs, not at international market costs," Duke stated. He noted that total production and refining costs hover around $45 per barrel, making it unreasonable to sell fuel back to Nigerians at international rates exceeding $100.
The former governor emphasized that high energy prices have exacerbated economic hardship, leaving low-income earners struggling to survive. Pointing to the current national minimum wage of N70,000, Duke observed that an entire month's salary could easily be consumed just by filling a vehicle's fuel tank.
To achieve the targeted N300 per litre price point, Duke proposed ring-fencing a portion of the country's daily crude output exclusively for domestic use.
"Allocate 600,000 barrels if that's what you consume daily. Allocate that to yourself. The other one million, you can sell it," he explained, arguing that this strategy would insulate domestic consumers from global price volatility while leveraging Nigeria's natural resources for public benefit.
