For half a century, Nigeria’s most enduring social contract was not enshrined in a constitution but at the petrol pump. Since 1973, successive governments had subsidised the price of petrol, transforming the country’s crude oil endowment into what officials described as a “social product”. A recent policy paper by the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI), released in September 2025, captures this trajectory with unusual candour. It traces how subsidies, initially designed to industrialise and stabilise, instead entrenched dependenc
For half a century, Nigeria’s most enduring social contract was not enshrined in a constitution but at the petrol pump. Since 1973, successive governments had subsidised the price of petrol, transforming the country’s crude oil endowment into what officials described as a “social product”. A recent policy paper by the Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI), released in September 2025, captures this trajectory with unusual candour. It traces how subsidies, initially designed to industrialise and stabilise, instead entrenched dependenc