Common sense just walked into the subsidy debate, and Ben Murray-Bruce is not whispering.
The media mogul and former senator came out swinging this week, telling ex-VP Atiku Abubakar that bringing back fuel subsidy would be “going back to the same thieves” — and telling governors that if Nigerians are suffering at bus parks, the answer is not in Aso Rock.
“Atiku Is Wrong. Subsidy Made Billionaires, Not Bread”
Bruce didn’t mince words. For 40 years, he said, subsidy enriched smugglers and a handful of billionaires while the woman selling tomatoes by the roadside got nothing.
“Going back to it would be going back to the same thieves,” he wrote.
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He gave President Tinubu credit for taking the hard call to remove it, and for sending record FAAC money to states — from ₦2.8 trillion in 2022 to ₦7.3 trillion in 2025.
The federal government, Bruce insists, has done its part. Now the heat moves to the 36 state houses.
“Transport Is Your Job, Not Abuja’s”
Here’s where Bruce got constitutional and blunt.
Moving people around Ilorin is Kwara’s job. Kano’s job. Lagos’ job. Not Abuja’s.
“Since the 2023 constitutional amendment, governors have more power over transport than any governors in our history. They are simply not using it,” he said.
He threw down the challenge: when a governor blames hardship on the center, ask him what he’s done with his allocation. A bus ride that cost ₦644 in Dec 2022 now costs ₦1,431. “A man who cannot afford to reach his workplace does not really have a job.”
ALSO READ: Tinubu, Wike slam ‘ignorant’ Atiku over fuel subsidy return talk
The ₦500 Plan: Free Students, Pay Drivers, No New Buses
Bruce laid out a four-point rescue he wants rolled out before 2027:
- Students ride free to school and back. Not discounted. Free.
- ₦500 cap across any city. Smaller towns should be even less.
- No new buses. Register existing drivers, set the passenger fare, and pay drivers the difference.
- Pay for proof only. GPS in vehicles, tap cards for riders. No trip, no pay.
Cost? No more than 5% of each state’s FAAC allocation. “If a governor cannot find five per cent to stop his own people from suffering, then the problem in that state was never money.”
He closed by offering to explain it to all 36 governors and the FCT Minister “at no cost. My phone is not switched off.”
“This is not rocket science,” Bruce said. “It is common sense.”
