Nigerians Split Over Tinubu’s October 1 Cheaper Transport Promise as Skepticism Mounts

President Bola Tinubu has set October 1, 2026, as the deadline for Nigerians to begin seeing measurable reductions in transportation costs through the National Affordable CNG Transit Programme, but the announcement has triggered a fierce backlash from citizens who say the relief is not reaching their daily commutes.

In a statement released on Saturday, Tinubu said he met with the 36 state governors on August 27, where they agreed that more Nigerians should begin to see cheaper transport fares from October.

An implementation committee for the programme was subsequently established under the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, chaired by Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

The President listed fare reductions already recorded across seven states and the Federal Capital Territory, ranging from 31 per cent to about 83 per cent.

He said Borno State’s CNG and electric public transport services charge between N50 and N100 on routes where commercial operators charge N300 to N600.

In Oyo State, CNG buses deployed to Pacesetter Transport cut the Lagos-Ibadan fare from about N8,000 to N3,200, while Enugu’s 100 CNG buses reduced the Enugu-Nsukka fare from N2,500 to N1,500.

In Abuja, a partnership with the National Union of Road Transport Workers gives passengers on CNG-converted vehicles a 40 per cent fare reduction on several routes.

“These are not projections. Nigerians are already experiencing these savings,” Tinubu said.

The President said more than 120,000 vehicles have been converted to CNG over the past three years, with over 400 certified conversion centres and more than 90 refuelling stations nationwide.

He rejected calls to return to the petrol subsidy regime, saying it “consumed trillions of naira and left our economy exposed to every movement in international oil prices”.

But the reaction from Nigerians online was swift and overwhelmingly skeptical. Auwal M. Haruna questioned the President’s rhetoric, asking: “Which figure of speech is this?”.

Sani Abdullahi Tanko expressed disbelief: “Is it a normal person that’s speaking?” . Steeve Taylor simply asked: “Where in Nigeria?”.

Muhammad Bello Adamu issued a political call to action: “We can fix this at the polling unit in January,” a reference to the 2027 presidential election.

On Nairaland, one user wrote: “That nonsense that you and your president will result to nothing. You will tell me how it will make transport cheap from Delta to River’s State or to Benin”.

Economist Dr Marcel Okeke dismissed the October 1 target, saying there is no “magic” that can make the directive happen without additional funding.

“I don’t know what magic they’re going to perform, but you know that the presidential election campaign has started,” Okeke said.

He argued that although state governors are receiving more money from the Federation Account, the sharp fall in the naira’s value has eroded the benefit, citing cement rising from N3,000-N4,000 per 50kg bag in May 2023 to N12,000-N15,000 now.

BusinessDay raised concerns about the short timeframe between the announcement and the scheduled date, noting that the joint federal-state committee’s membership, responsibilities, funding arrangements and implementation timetable have not been publicly detailed.

The outlet noted that with about 120,000 vehicles converted against Nigeria’s estimated 21 million registered vehicles, that is well under one per cent of the national fleet.

Tinubu acknowledged renewed pressure on petrol and diesel prices from global energy disruptions, saying Nigeria cannot control international oil markets but can reduce its exposure by leveraging domestic gas. “At a time like this, our answer cannot be to return to the ruinous petrol subsidy regime,” he said.