The presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, has said Nigeria’s crude oil resources must provide real and measurable benefits to ordinary Nigerians, calling for complete transparency across the country’s petroleum value chain.
Makinde made the remarks on Monday during the commissioning of the Makinde/Daura Presidential Campaign Office in Abuja, where he outlined elements of his economic platform ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
The governor clarified that his position was not a call for reinstating Nigeria’s former fuel subsidy regime, but rather a demand for a transparent pricing system that reflects the country’s status as an oil-producing nation. He argued that Nigerians should not be made to pay international-equivalent prices for crude supplied to local refineries.
Drawing an analogy, Makinde said, “If a community grows food, the people of that community should not have to buy that food as though it travelled halfway around the world before reaching them,” questioning why crude oil supplied to Nigerian refineries should be priced as though the country does not produce it.
He proposed that the benefit of domestic crude production be built into the system from the point of supply to refineries, rather than delivered as what he described as an opaque intervention at the petrol pump after costs and inefficiencies have already accumulated.
Makinde called for full transparency covering crude oil production, domestic allocation, refining, transportation, distribution, taxes and retail margins, saying Nigerians deserved to understand how the final price of petrol is determined, who benefits from the system, and where inefficiencies drive up costs.
He linked the proposal to his broader “Reset Nigeria” agenda, which he described as a commitment to open government decision-making to public scrutiny, saying the approach means the government must show its workings rather than maintain systems nobody can explain.
Makinde urged Nigerians to engage with the Reset Nigeria movement beyond political circles, saying he wanted to hear from traders affected by rising transport costs, farmers unable to move produce to market, business owners facing fluctuating fuel prices, and young Nigerians struggling to see a clear path forward. He described the newly commissioned campaign office as the “engine room” of the party’s 2027 electoral effort.
The event was attended by Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, who serves as the APM’s National Leader, alongside Makinde’s running mate, Lawal Musa Daura, a former Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS).
