Targeted Subsidy: 100 million Tinubus can’t stop me — Atiku
By Omeiza Ajayi, Abuja
ABUJA—Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has asserted that his efforts to reinstate a targeted fuel subsidy for Nigerians will not be deterred by opposition from President Bola Tinubu or what he described as “millions of his gang of economic jesters.” Abubakar accused the current administration of mislabeling subsidy removal as reform while simultaneously providing fiscal incentives to oil investors.
In a statement released on Sunday in Abuja by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate criticized the government’s claim of abolishing fuel subsidies. He noted that this assertion is inconsistent with tax credits and other incentives that continue to benefit petroleum operators.
Abubakar referenced audited accounts from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), emphasizing that the figures contradict the government’s narrative that subsidies have been eliminated. He pointed out discrepancies in NNPC’s financial statements, which indicated approximately ₦4.84 trillion in energy-security expenses in 2023, followed by about ₦7.13 trillion in 2024. He explained that these expenses arise from the difference between the regulated price of petrol and the exchange rate at the time of import.
“The naming of the expense as a ‘shortfall’ rather than a subsidy does not change its substance,” Abubakar stated. “Nigerians are not concerned with semantics. Public resources are still being used to address the price difference.”
Abubakar further criticized the government for its approach to corporate versus household economic relief. He highlighted the Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives framework, which allows qualifying petroleum developments to access production tax credits, as an example of governmental preferential treatment for investors.
“The government can protect a multibillion-dollar oil investment from risk but claims that providing relief to Nigerian workers is poor economics,” he said. “It can adjust policies to enhance corporate profits, yet deny struggling families affordable petrol.”
The former Vice President presented his own economic strategy, the Atiku Economic Recovery Plan, as a transparent alternative to the previous subsidy regime, promising clearer oversight and defined limits.
“This proposal includes a targeted, capped, transparently budgeted intervention with an independent audit, along with initiatives to boost domestic refining capacity, encourage competition, improve mass transportation, and enhance household purchasing power,” he stated.
Abubakar also called for transparency regarding the petroleum tax concessions granted under the current administration, demanding detailed disclosures on beneficiaries and the value of the revenue lost.
“A government should not preach unrestrained market forces to the impoverished while practicing interventionist economics solely for wealthy foreign interests,” he said. “It cannot demand sacrifices from Nigerian families while offering concessions to powerful corporations and label the resulting hardship as reform. That does not constitute economic reform; it is economic apartheid.”
