Fuel Subsidy Row: Atiku Fires Back, Accuses Tinubu of Economic Ignorance

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has hit back at President Bola Tinubu over his criticism of Atiku’s proposal to introduce a targeted intervention in the petroleum sector, accusing the president of economic mismanagement.

Tinubu had, while hosting Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke on Thursday, described Atiku’s promise to restore fuel subsidy if elected president in 2027 as evidence of “serious ignorance” of governance and the economy.

Responding through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described Tinubu’s comment as an attempt by a government whose economic policies had imposed severe hardship on Nigerians to dismiss alternative solutions.

Shaibu said the Tinubu administration had triggered simultaneous fuel-price, exchange-rate and cost-of-living shocks, leaving millions of Nigerians poorer.

He argued that increased allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) could not, by themselves, be regarded as evidence of economic success if households and businesses were struggling with rising transportation, food and production costs.

According to Atiku, “a government that grows richer while its citizens grow poorer is not reforming an economy,” but transferring the burden of fiscal adjustment to ordinary Nigerians.

The former vice president also rejected the suggestion that his proposal amounted to a return to the previous open-ended fuel subsidy regime.

He said his proposed intervention would be targeted, capped, budgeted, time-bound and independently audited, with the aim of supporting domestic production while limiting opportunities for abuse and arbitrage.

Atiku argued that economic policies must respond to prevailing circumstances, maintaining that the removal of fuel subsidy had significantly altered the economic environment.

He accused the Tinubu administration of declaring the subsidy abolished without putting in place adequate measures to cushion the impact of higher fuel prices on households and businesses.

The former vice president further questioned the government’s claim that subsidy had been completely eliminated, citing what he described as billions of naira in energy-security costs and petroleum under-recoveries contained in NNPC’s audited accounts.

“If subsidy is dead, why are under-recoveries alive?” Atiku asked, arguing that Nigerians had been left to bear the cost of higher fuel prices while government finances continued to reflect petroleum-related expenses.

He also criticized Tinubu’s argument that higher FAAC allocations to states were among the benefits of subsidy removal.

Atiku said stronger government revenues should not come at the expense of household purchasing power, arguing that increased allocations to governments would mean little if Nigerians were simultaneously facing higher transportation costs, food inflation and declining living standards.

“You do not build a federation by impoverishing citizens so that Abuja can send bigger cheques to governors,” Atiku said.

The exchange marks another escalation in the economic debate between Tinubu and Atiku ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with fuel pricing, subsidy policy, inflation and the cost of living emerging as key areas of political contention.