Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s criticism of his proposal for intervention in the petroleum sector, insisting that his plan is designed to boost domestic production rather than revive Nigeria’s former subsidy regime.
Atiku, in a statement issued on Friday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, accused the Tinubu administration of worsening the economic hardship facing Nigerians while pointing to increased government revenues as evidence of reform success.
His reaction followed Tinubu’s description of proposals to restore or introduce another form of petrol subsidy as a demonstration of “serious ignorance on governance and economy”.
Atiku argued that the economic realities confronting Nigerians had changed considerably since Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy in May 2023.
“Economic prescriptions respond to prevailing conditions. But other things are no longer equal in Tinubu’s Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, the subsidy removal, combined with foreign exchange liberalisation, contributed to sharp increases in petrol prices, transportation costs, food prices and household expenses, while the naira also lost significant value.
He said his proposal was a temporary production-support mechanism intended to encourage domestic refining and protect consumers from excessive price shocks.
“Atiku is not proposing the resurrection of the corrupt, open-ended subsidy bazaar. He proposes a targeted, capped, budgeted, time-bound and independently audited production-support mechanism tied to domestic production and protected against arbitrage,” the statement said.
The former vice president accused Tinubu of failing to adequately address the consequences of the reforms introduced by his administration.
“The real ignorance is believing suffering is economic policy. Tinubu removed the subsidy from Nigerians’ pockets, but he is yet to remove the questions from his books,” he said.
Atiku also questioned the continued appearance of petroleum under-recoveries and energy-security costs in the accounts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
He cited figures which he said amounted to approximately N17.5tn, including about N7.13tn classified as energy-security costs and another N8.67tn.
“If subsidy is dead, why are under-recoveries alive? If corruption was eliminated, why has opacity survived?” he asked.
He argued that the government could not claim to have eliminated the financial burden associated with fuel subsidy while Nigerians continued to bear the consequences of higher energy costs.
“Tinubu has given Nigerians the worst of both worlds: he removed the relief but retained the opaque costs. Nigerians got the pain; government kept the bill,” he said.
The Federal Government has consistently defended the removal of petrol subsidy, describing it as financially unsustainable and necessary to free resources for development and strengthen public finances.
The administration has also pointed to increased Federation Account allocations to states as one of the benefits of the policy, saying the additional revenue has helped state governments meet salary and other recurrent obligations.
Atiku rejected that argument, saying higher government revenue should not be celebrated as an economic achievement when Nigerians were losing purchasing power.
“You do not build a federation by impoverishing citizens so that Abuja can send bigger cheques to governors,” he said.
He further argued that rising federal transfers could discourage states from developing productive sectors and expanding their internally generated revenue.
“That is not fiscal federalism. It is fiscal sedation and rascality,” he said.
Atiku also renewed his call for an explanation of about N30tn in Federation Account revenues, deductions, savings and transfers which he said remained unaccounted for.
He questioned the N12.8tn Service-Wide Vote contained in the 2026 budget and challenged the administration to provide greater transparency over public finances.
“If Tinubu can mobilise an army of propagandists to attack Atiku within hours, surely he can find one accountant to explain his books,” he said.
The ADC presidential candidate maintained that economic reforms should ultimately be assessed by their effect on citizens rather than by the size of government revenue.
“Economic reform is not measured by how fat government accounts become while citizens grow poorer,” he said.
Atiku said Nigerians had endured enough hardship under what he termed “Tinubunomics”, urging them to reject policies that he believed would deepen economic difficulties.
He maintained that his proposed intervention was aimed at supporting domestic production and gradually reducing dependence on subsidy while providing relief to consumers.
“Nigerians have paid enough for Tinubunomics. They should not be sentenced to another four years of the bitter experiment,” Atiku said.
Leave a Reply