The Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) Mallam Yakubu Tanimu has clarified that subsidy removal does not produce pile of surplus cash as erroneously insinuated in some quarters. Rather, Budget DG argues in a rebuttal statement issued to counter a previous statement, declaring that what subsidy halting does is to stop financial haemorrhage.

“There is criticism, and there is confusion elevated to performance art. Suyi Ayodele’s “History Tinubu Should Have Learnt” is not an argument, it is a cascade of assertions built on a startling ignorance of how modern economies function”.

Subsidy removal, he argues reduces a recurrent fiscal burden that had become structurally unsustainable. What it creates is fiscal space, not fiscal abundance”, Tanimu reaffirmed. “It is one thing to oppose policy. It is quite another to do so while demonstrating no working knowledge of public finance, sovereign borrowing, external reserves, or international trade architecture.

Mr Ayodele manages all four confidently”. Schooling Ayodele on distinct clarity about subsidy removal and the purposes it serves, he argues that fiscal space is not a cash windfall. “The article’s animating question, why a government that removed subsidies still borrows rests on a false premise”, said DG BOF.

He described Nigeria as a developing economy with large infrastructure deficits, binding revenue constraints, and legacy debt service obligations. In such a context, Tanimu said borrowing is not evidence of failure; it is an instrument of transition.

“To expect subsidy removal to eliminate borrowing is to confuse budget arithmetic with economic transformation. He said there is a difference between investment and illiteracy in a manner Ayodele treats borrowing.