Following the declaration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during his inaugural speech on Monday, May 29 that fuel subsidy was gone, queues resumed at the filling stations nation-wide. Many of the petroleum marketers were either hoarding the products or immediately jacked up the prices, and that for the stock they already had before inauguration. The new president had said that there was no provision for payment of subsidy in the budget he was inheriting and had to operate from June, three days away from inauguration, and said that Nigeria’s dwindling resources could not sustain the ever increasing cost of subsidy. There were immediate concerns, as to how the country would handle the situation. But by Wednesday the federal government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) announced a new price regime for the petroleum products. Now, pump price of petrol has gone up by nearly 200% to between ₦488 and ₦557 nationwide. According to the new price template, marketers in Lagos State are to sell a litre of PMS for ₦488, while Northern counterparts will sell the same quantity for ₦577. In the Eastern part of the country, the prices will range from ₦515 to ₦520.
