The article examines how President Bola Tinubu and his administration have long presented the removal of petrol subsidy as a defining demonstration of courage in governance. It notes that among Tinubu's four predecessors in the Fourth Republic were two retired military generals, Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, who both approached petrol subsidy reforms with caution despite their soldierly backgrounds. Obasanjo pursued repeated price increases, while Buhari left the subsidy structure substantially intact. The other two predecessors, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, came from academic backgrounds, and Jonathan's attempted subsidy removal in January 2012 provoked nationwide protests and forced a partial reversal.
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