By Adekunle Adekoya
We were warned that petrol subsidy would not last forever and would have to go someday. It has now gone. President Bola Tinubu chose to extinguish subsidy in his inaugural address on May 29. As we all came to see, the president had barely left the Eagle Square venue of his inauguration when the petrol market responded. That May 29 afternoon, most petrol stations had shut their gates to motorists. Those that did not shut their gates had queues several hundred metres long, and dispensed from only one pump. That development generated instant chaos at the stations. But that was just the beginning.
By the following day, a pricing template indicating how much a litre of petrol could be sold for in each state of the federation emerged in the social media. It turned out to be real as the oil sector regulators confirmed its reality. It became clear the one litre of petrol sold for N488 in Lagos, which was the lowest price nationwide, while the price of N537 was indicated for Borno and Yobe states.
