President Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday took a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his pledge to reverse the removal of petrol subsidy if he is elected in the January 16 presidential election.
Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said he would restore subsidy on fuel, adding that the funds freed for use as a result of subsidy withdrawal could not be traced.
The Presidency also knocked Atiku, describing his position as an about-turn on the issue out of desperation for power.
Tinubu described the position as a demonstration of ‘serious ignorance’ about governance and the economy.
The President spoke while receiving the re-elected Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, at the State House, Abuja.
He said the abolition of the subsidy regime had strengthened the finances of states and enabled them to meet their obligations.
‘I saw one of my opponents now say he will go back to subsidy. I read it. That is a demonstration of serious ignorance on governance and economy.
‘Before I came here, 27 states were unable to pay salaries, not to even talk of pensioners, salary of workers. In your state, I know a man that I raised… who’s nicknamed ‘half salary’.
‘They come to the federal, cap in hand, unable to do anything. The salaries you pay feed families. They (workers) are at the local governments; they are in the states. Where is the concentration of population? It is in the states,’ Tinubu said.
The President’s remarks came against the backdrop of Atiku’s declaration that he would reverse the removal of fuel subsidy if elected President, reopening debate over one of the most consequential economic decisions of the Tinubu administration.
At his inauguration on May 29, 2023, Tinubu boldly and courageously declared: ‘Fuel subsidy is gone.’
Tinubu told Adeleke that increased resources available to states should translate into tangible improvements in the lives of ordinary Nigerians, particularly through payment of salaries and investment in infrastructure and social services.
According to him, state governments bear substantial responsibility for the welfare of Nigerians because much of the population lives within communities where state and local governments are responsible for providing essential services.
‘Take out the president, regard every other person as common men; they have families to feed.
‘The infrastructure you embark upon, the road network, housing, school rehabilitation, resuscitation of healthcare, training of teachers, training of health workers to protect our vulnerable families – they’re part of your responsibilities,’ he said.
Atiku vows to restore petrol subsidy, questions N15.8tr savings
African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku backtracked on his position on fuel subsidy removal.
Although he vowed to dismantle the subsidy regime during his campaigns four years ago, he said he could not sustain his previous stance because the proceeds had allegedly been mismanaged.
The three major presidential candidates in 2023 – Tinubu (All Progressives Congress), Atiku (Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi, then of the Labour Party – promised to remove fuel subsidy because of the corruption associated with it.
Atiku, who promised to restore subsidy during a Hausa-language online interactive session, queried how the funds generated from the subsidy removal had been utilised by the Federal Government.
He said: ‘I did not oppose the removal of the oil subsidy, but where is the money? Where did it go? It was intended to reduce poverty and help children attend school. Where is the money now? It seems they are just stealing it.’
He promised to reinstate the subsidy while pursuing the recovery of funds allegedly misappropriated, if he wins.
Atiku said: ‘If elected, I will bring back the oil subsidy, and whoever stole the money must refund it.’
He said the removal of the subsidy would have been easier for Nigerians to accept if the savings had been channelled into critical areas, including security, education, job creation and expanded opportunities for young people.
Atiku said: ‘The government successfully removed the subsidy, but we do not know where the money went.
‘If they had used the money for development, to solve security problems, for education, and to create opportunities for the youth, it would be different. If elected, I can remove the subsidy and use the money to do all these properly.’
In the last three years, N15.8 trillion has accrued to the country following the subsidy removal.
The Federal Government explained that, due to the surge in revenue, more funds had been channelled towards developmental projects while the money shared among the three tiers of government had increased exponentially.
The minister said N5.4 trillion went to the Federal Government and N10.4 trillion was shared between the state and local governments.
On the part of the Federal Government, Oyedele said N30.64 trillion was spent on additional expenses over the same period, with the largest portions going to public-sector wages, debt servicing and infrastructure.
Oyedele’s scorecard showed that N9.39 trillion was spent on wage adjustments, minimum wage increases and allowances for public servants.
Another N9.37 trillion went into servicing external debt following the impact of exchange-rate depreciation, while N6.5 trillion was spent on strategic infrastructure.
Presidency: desperation for power behind Atiku’s subsidy U-turn
The Presidency attributed Abubakar’s proposal to restore petrol subsidy to desperation for power, accusing him of abandoning his long-held economic position five months to the presidential election in an attempt to win popular support.
It said Atiku, who had campaigned for the elimination of petrol subsidy ahead of the 2023 general election, had now reversed himself by promising to reinstate a system he once acknowledged should be abolished.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made the assertion in a statement titled, ‘Restoring petrol subsidies: Atiku’s volte-face and desperation for power’.
According to the Presidency, Atiku’s change of position was driven by political expediency rather than sound economic considerations, arguing that the former Vice President was making a promise he should know was fiscally unsustainable and contrary to Nigeria’s current petroleum-sector realities.
‘It is not difficult to explain why Atiku has latched onto the abandoned subsidy regime, five months to the election. Desperate for power, he needed to make a promise that he knew, if he were candid with our people, does not make fiscal sense, is retrogressive, and is against the genuine interest of the people,’ Onanuga said.
It accused him of opportunistically recanting what had been a major plank of his economic programme, rather than presenting what it called a creative alternative to the policies of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
Onanuga, however, acknowledged Atiku’s constitutional right to change his position and propose alternative policies, but said Nigerians were entitled to demand explanations about how the proposed subsidy would be funded and implemented.
The Presidency also disputed Atiku’s claim that the Federal Government had accumulated N30 trillion in subsidy savings, saying no such fund existed.
It explained that the previous subsidy arrangement essentially involved the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) selling petrol below its supply cost, thereby accumulating under-recoveries and losses.
According to Onanuga, trillions of naira in subsidy costs incurred under the old arrangement remained in the NNPC’s books.
‘Contrary to Atiku’s claim in his interview, no N30 trillion subsidy windfall or savings exists anywhere except in his imagination,’ he said.
The Presidency further argued that returning to the pre-2023 subsidy system would encounter legal and structural obstacles because the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) had established a market-oriented framework for the downstream petroleum sector.
It said the PIA had already provided for subsidy removal by the end of June 2023, maintaining that Tinubu’s announcement on May 29, 2023, merely brought forward the implementation by a few weeks to halt further financial losses.
Onanuga said reinstating subsidy could therefore not be achieved merely by announcing a lower petrol price, but would require a clear legal, fiscal and administrative framework, including identification of the source of funding.
The Presidency also said Nigeria’s petroleum industry had changed fundamentally since 2023, particularly with the emergence of substantial domestic refining capacity.
It cited the Dangote Refinery as a major source of locally refined petrol, contending that its production for domestic consumption was facilitated by the market-driven environment created after subsidy removal.
According to Onanuga, restoring the old subsidy arrangement could reverse the progress made in local refining and threaten the viability of smaller domestic refineries.
‘Atiku’s proposal portends a reversal of current local production, and it will spell bankruptcy for smaller local refineries like Aradel’s, causing attendant job losses and a loss of foreign exchange,’ he said.
The Presidency recalled that under the former subsidy system, government absorbed the difference between regulated pump prices and the actual cost of supplying petrol, imposing substantial and often unpredictable costs on public finances.
It said the government had at various times resorted to borrowing and other financing arrangements to sustain the system, including pledging millions of barrels of crude oil against loans.
Onanuga added that the NNPC had reached a breaking point in 2024, owing suppliers billions of dollars.
Wike: Opposition is dead, says Wike
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, berated Atiku for regressing into ‘voodoo economics’, saying that his shifting stance on the critical economic issue demonstrated a lack of genuine commitment to the nation’s welfare.
The minister, who spoke with reporters while inspecting some projects in Abuja, accused Atiku of desperation for power.
He said: ‘Leadership is about integrity and consistency. Atiku is confused, and acts like a voodoo economist. Atiku will say anything just to be president.
‘This was a man in 2023 who said he was going to remove the fuel subsidy because it was a fraud. Now in 2026, he was not going to remove the fuel subsidy.
‘Is he going back to the fraud which he had alleged that fuel subsidy was? We should be able to be consistent in what we sell to our people. That is what leadership is all about.’
The minister urged Nigerians to disregard politicians who play to the gallery, insisting that the policy decisions taken by President Tinubu to eliminate the subsidy regime were bold and necessary to rescue the nation’s economy.