President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has cautioned the electorate against falling for what he termed false promises from political opponents, declaring firmly that the petrol subsidy regime belongs permanently to Nigeria`s past.

Speaking on Saturday in Kaduna at the official flag-off of his 2027 presidential re-election campaign, Tinubu urged voters to exercise strict vigilance and scrutinize the pledges of candidates seeking their mandate.

"Be careful, watch them, don’t let them lie to you," Tinubu told the gathering.

Defending the controversial policy decision made during the inception of his administration in 2023, Tinubu asserted that ending the subsidy has eliminated multi-billion-naira leakages, invoice falsification, and cross-border fuel smuggling.

"What is the past is the past, fuel subsidy is in our past, no more corruption, no more falsification of invoices, no more lies, no more smuggling of fuel," the President stated.

He challenged voters to take ownership of the country`s trajectory, emphasizing that their electoral choices would shape future national prosperity.

"Your prosperity is here. Your future is in your hands, your fingerprints will reflect it," he added, appealing for a renewed mandate to build a "better tomorrow".

The address comes amid heated campaign rhetoric surrounding Nigeria’s economic reforms. Opposition figures—including Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress (ADC)—have campaigned on platforms promising to reverse the removal of petrol subsidies to ease the rising cost of living.

The Tinubu administration has consistently dismissed such proposals as political propaganda and a fundamental misunderstanding of fiscal realities, maintaining that a return to subsidized fuel would bankrupt the nation.