The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate and former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, has pledged to slash premium motor spirit (PMS) costs to roughly ₦300 per litre if he wins the presidency in 2027.
Featuring on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Wednesday, the former governor outlined a alternative economic strategy targeting current energy pricing models.
He argued that the federal government should decouple domestic fuel prices from global market rates, insisting that local consumers ought to pay rates reflective of domestic extraction and refining costs rather than international benchmarks.
Labeling the existing subsidy setup as fundamentally flawed, Duke stressed that the total expense required to extract and refine crude within Nigeria remains far lower than the foreign exchange-indexed rates forced onto everyday citizens.
”I’m giving you a production cost of $45, right? The international price—that’s $45, including processing, refining, otherwise, it’s about $30, and you’re selling it back to your own people at 100 and something dollars,” Duke noted during the broadcast.
He warned that exorbitant energy costs are overwhelming ordinary citizens, noting that current pump rates severely erode household income, especially with the ₦70,000 national minimum wage.
“You don’t want them to breathe, and your people are notably the poorest in the world. They can’t afford it,” Duke remarked. “Your salary will go in just filling a tank of fuel.”
Outlining his administration’s plan to reach the ₦300 target, Duke proposed ring-fencing a dedicated allocation of Nigeria’s daily crude output exclusively for domestic refining and consumption, while exporting the surplus to global markets.”Allocate 600,000 barrels if that’s what you consume daily. Allocate that to yourself. The other one million you can sell it,” he explained, adding that this framework would cushion the domestic economy against global oil price shocks.
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