FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike has said President Bola Tinubu has no constitutional power to tell states and local governments how to spend extra money that followed fuel subsidy removal.

Wike spoke on Wednesday at a media parley in Port Harcourt, answering criticism from Peter Obi about what has been done with the so-called subsidy savings. The minister said the useful question is what each tier of government does with its share, not whether Abuja can direct the spending.

Once the gains are shared through the federation account, he argued, the president cannot instruct a state or a council on how to use the money. “All tiers of government are independent,” he said.

Wike added that higher allocations have eased salary and pension pressures in some states and given them more room for projects. That is a political defence of the reform’s fiscal design: the federal centre removed the subsidy, the extra revenue is split, and accountability then sits with governors and local councils as much as with the presidency.

Obi and other critics have asked where the savings went and why households still feel the pain of higher pump prices. Wike’s reply shifts that demand toward the states. Whether voters accept the split will be part of the 2027 argument over who owns the gains of subsidy removal.