The Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development (FENRAD Nigeria) has taken a firm stand against the Federal Government’s proposed 5% surcharge on petroleum and diesel products, describing it as “anti-people, economically insensitive, and a recipe for deeper hardship.”
In a statement issued in Abuja and signed by its Executive Director, Comrade Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, the group warned that the move—currently being considered by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA)—would hit Nigerians at a time they can least afford it.
“After the painful removal of fuel subsidy, citizens are already reeling from skyrocketing transport fares, unaffordable food prices, and the collapse of many small businesses due to rising energy costs. Adding another surcharge is simply cruel and disconnected from reality,” FENRAD declared.
The organisation noted that the surcharge is punitive, as it piles more suffering on ordinary Nigerians; destabilising, because it raises costs for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that drive the economy; and damaging, since it undermines public trust in the government’s reform agenda.
Instead of squeezing citizens further, FENRAD is urging government to:
Suspend the surcharge immediately.
Deliver promised palliatives to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.
Channel investments into renewable energy, affordable public transportation, and job creation to ease the cost-of-living crisis.
The group also called on the National Assembly, labour unions, civil society organisations, and the wider public to join hands in resisting the surcharge “in the interest of fairness, justice, and economic stability.”
“Nigeria cannot afford another policy that punishes its most vulnerable,” FENRAD stressed. “True governance must put people before revenue collection. What Nigerians need now are solutions that ease their pain, not policies that deepen it.”
