- President Gives 36 Governors October 1 Ultimatum to Crash Bus Fares
- Rejects Subsidy Reversal, Insists Gas Gains Must Hit Commuters’ Pockets
- AbdulRazaq Heads NGF Task Force as 120,000 Converted Vehicles Fail to Lower Park Rates
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has handed down an October 1 deadline to the 36 state governors to compel commercial transport operators to slash fares, insisting that the public must immediately feel the relief of cheaper alternative fuels.
The presidential directive, issued on Saturday in an operational review of the National Affordable CNG Transit Programme, signals growing impatience in the State House over the failure of gas conversions to translate into cheaper commutes for ordinary Nigerians.
Tinubu declared that while federal authorities and private partners have converted over 120,000 vehicles, accredited 400 conversion centres, and opened 90 refuelling stations, the programme will no longer be judged by infrastructure rollout figures alone.
“The objective agreed with the 36 state governors is not simply to increase the number of vehicles converted to CNG, but to ensure that the savings from cheaper energy ultimately reach commuters through lower fares,” the President said.
To enforce compliance, the administration has set up an implementation committee under the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, headed by Kwara State Governor and NGF Chairman AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
The committee is liaising with the Presidential Initiative on CNG and Electric Vehicles, state transport ministries, and road transport unions to map designated transit corridors and establish monitored fare benchmarks before the October 1 deadline.
Tinubu made it clear that the federal government will not yield to mounting political pressure to reinstate petrol subsidies, describing the previous regime as an unsustainable drain on the treasury.
“At a time like this, our answer cannot be to return to the ruinous petrol subsidy regime,” Tinubu said, arguing that transitioning to Nigeria’s domestic natural gas reserves remains the only buffer against volatile international crude prices.
The President cited pilot transit schemes where state-backed interventions had forced prices down.
In Borno State, state-operated CNG and electric buses are carrying passengers for between ₦50 and ₦100 on city corridors where private operators charge up to ₦600.
In Kaduna, a fleet of 100 dedicated gas buses reportedly moved 3.2 million passengers within 12 months, while Oyo State’s deployment of Pacesetter CNG buses temporarily brought the Lagos-Ibadan interstate fare down to ₦3,200 from ₦8,000.
Similar subsidised corridors were highlighted in Adamawa, where transit costs fell by half on select routes, and Enugu, where 100 state buses dropped the Enugu-Nsukka rate to ₦1,500 against the commercial park rate of ₦2,500.
In the Federal Capital Territory, union partnerships across routes like Area 1–Gwagwalada and Nyanya brought fare drops of up to 40 per cent on designated gas-powered vehicles.
However, transport analysts and union executives point out that outside state-subsidised pilot fleets, the vast majority of commercial commuter buses across Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, and Ibadan still run on petrol and diesel, leaving millions of daily commuters paying peak rates.
Tinubu challenged governors to close that gap before the independence anniversary by partnering directly with the National Union of Road Transport Workers and the Road Transport Employers Association to roll out conversion credit lines and enforce lower fares at retail motor parks.
