Atiku in Dramatic U-turn, Wants Fuel Subsidy Returned
• Tinubu: It shows your ignorance on governance, economy
•I will follow the barrel, ensure accountability, ex-VP insists
• No, you are desperate for power, presidency says
•Wike: Atiku confused, will never be president
Deji Elumoye, Emmanuel Addeh, Chuks Okocha and Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday reopened one of Nigeria’s most contentious economic debates, promising to restore petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027.
However, the position marked a dramatic departure from his earlier advocacy for its removal and set the stage for a fresh political battle over the policy that has defined much of President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms.
But in a response, the President flayed Atiku over his plan to return fuel subsidy if elected President next year, saying that the ex-number two man is ignorant of governance and economy.
Speaking yesterday evening while receiving in audience at the State House, Abuja, Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun state, Tinubu declared that the move by Atiku to reintroduce petrol subsidy showed his high level of ignorance in governance and economy.
Besides, the Presidency, in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, rejected the proposal, describing it as retrogressive, fiscally unsustainable and a product of what it called Atiku’s desperation to win the presidency.
It argued that Nigeria’s petroleum landscape had changed fundamentally since Tinubu announced the removal of the petrol subsidy in his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, particularly with the emergence of significant domestic refining capacity.
It said a return to subsidy would undermine the reforms already undertaken in the petroleum sector, create legal and fiscal complications and potentially discourage investment in domestic refining, including the Dangote Refinery and other modular refineries.
Atiku Explains Rationale for Planned Move
Atiku insisted that every barrel of crude allocated under the scheme would be targeted and tracked to ensure that Nigerians benefit from the intervention.
The politician-cum businessman, who unveiled details of his proposed Atiku Economic Recovery Plan (AERP) 2027, argued that the government had failed to adequately account for the financial gains from the removal of the petrol subsidy and that a new intervention should be designed around domestic refining, with support capped, budgeted and tied to verifiable production and consumer benefits.
Atiku maintained that his proposal was not a return to the opaque subsidy regime of the past, but a controlled mechanism that would support Nigerian refineries while ensuring that the benefits of cheaper crude feedstock were transmitted to consumers.
Under the proposal, qualifying domestic refineries would receive crude at preferential prices subject to strict conditions relating to production, efficiency, transparency and domestic supply. Atiku also pledged to track the crude from allocation to refining and ensure that any support translated into lower prices for consumers.
The subsidy debate has recently assumed a political dimension, with the opposition seeking to make the hardship associated with the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms a central campaign issue, while the Presidency has continued to defend the reforms as necessary measures to restore fiscal stability and attract investment.
The federal government’s position received fresh backing on Wednesday when the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, said the removal of the petrol subsidy had generated N15.8 trillion in resources for the federation between June 2023 and December 2025. According to the government, N5.4 trillion accrued to the federal government while N10.4 trillion was shared among states and local governments.
The petrol subsidy regime became one of Nigeria’s most contentious fiscal policies before Tinubu announced its removal in his inaugural address on May 29, 2023. The policy had kept petrol prices below market-related levels by requiring the government to absorb part of the cost of supplying the product, but it also attracted criticism over its huge fiscal burden, opaque administration, smuggling and alleged corruption.
The removal immediately pushed up petrol prices and contributed to a sharp increase in transportation, food and other living costs, making the reform deeply unpopular among many Nigerians. The Tinubu administration has nevertheless maintained that eliminating the subsidy freed resources for the federation and helped restore government finances.
But the ex-VP who unveiled details of his proposed petroleum subsidy reform, declared that his administration would replace Nigeria’s old import-subsidy architecture with a targeted, capped, transparently budgeted and independently audited production subsidy designed to lower energy costs while accelerating domestic refining.
Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the AERP 2027 recognises that the choice before Nigeria is not simply between subsidy and no subsidy, but between an opaque intervention that breeds waste and a disciplined economic instrument that delivers measurable benefits to citizens.
“My proposal is not to resurrect the old subsidy regime. We will move subsidy from importation to production, from middlemen to Nigerian refineries, and from unverifiable claims to verifiable barrels. The principle is simple: the subsidy will follow the barrel,” he explained.
Under the AERP, Atiku pointed out that qualifying public and private Nigerian refineries would receive domestic crude at a preferential price, subject to strict production, efficiency, transparency and domestic-supply conditions.
He acknowledged that supplying crude below its market-equivalent value represents a real opportunity cost to the Federation and said his plan would account for that cost openly rather than pretend it does not exist.
“The cost will be known. The ceiling will be known. The beneficiaries will be known. And, most importantly, the benefit delivered to Nigerians will be measurable.
“We will determine what Nigeria can afford before we subsidise. We will not subsidise first and discover the bill afterwards,” the former Nigerian number two man emphasised.
Atiku said the AERP would specifically prevent refinery owners from pocketing the benefit of preferential crude without passing it to consumers.
He added: ‘’No refinery would receive subsidised crude without a corresponding, independently verified quantity of petroleum products being supplied to the Nigerian market under a transparent pricing formula reflecting the benefit of the preferential crude price.
‘’Crude allocation, refinery intake, production yields, inventories and domestic deliveries would be reconciled, ensuring that every subsidised barrel can be followed from allocation through refining to the Nigerian consumer.
“No phantom cargoes. No fictitious imports. No unverifiable under-recoveries. No retrospective claims.
“If you receive subsidised Nigerian crude, you must refine it in Nigeria, supply the agreed products to Nigerians and pass the benefit to Nigerians. Otherwise, you do not qualify.”
Atiku said eligibility would be open and rules-based for all qualifying public and private refineries, thereby preventing the programme from becoming a vehicle for enriching any particular refinery or politically connected operator.
According to him, allocation would be based on independently verified capacity, efficiency, domestic supply and compliance rather than political discretion.
The programme, he stressed, would also contain strict safeguards against arbitrage, while subsidised crude and products benefiting from the intervention could not simply be diverted to more profitable foreign markets while Nigerian consumers bear the fiscal cost.
Any operator that diverts subsidised crude or products, manipulates production records, violates domestic-supply obligations or fails to pass the prescribed benefit to consumers, Atiku said, would lose eligibility, refund the subsidy benefit and face applicable regulatory and legal sanctions.
“Nigeria will not subsidise anybody’s private profit. Public support must produce a measurable public benefit,” he reaffirmed.
Atiku said the production subsidy would operate within a predetermined annual fiscal ceiling approved through the federal budget, ending the culture of open-ended subsidy liabilities.
“No refinery gets unlimited support. No marketer brings government a surprise bill. No agency manufactures an under-recovery after the transaction.
“The National Assembly will see the appropriation. Nigerians will know the maximum exposure. Independent auditors will see the barrels. And the public will see what was produced for every naira of support,” he insisted.
Where oil revenues exceed the budget benchmark, a predetermined and legally appropriated portion of the additional revenue, he stressed, may be deployed within the established fiscal ceiling, while no windfall would be assumed before it materialises, and weaker oil prices or production would not be used as justification for breaching the ceiling.
Atiku said the fiscal framework would also disclose the opportunity cost and implications for revenues accruing to federal, state and local governments, rather than conceal the intervention through deductions from the Federation Account.
Atiku noted that the AERP intervention would carry statutory sunset and periodic review provisions.
As domestic refining capacity expands, utilisation improves, competition increases and production costs decline, support per barrel, he argued, would progressively reduce according to predetermined benchmarks.
“Our objective is not permanent subsidy. It is to use temporary and disciplined support to build a refining industry strong enough eventually not to need subsidy.
“We will measure the fiscal cost against refinery output, domestic prices, jobs, investment and benefits delivered to consumers. If the policy is not delivering value greater than its cost, it must be adjusted or terminated,” he said.
Atiku said this approach would reduce petrol and diesel costs and transmit the benefits throughout the economy.
Lower transportation costs, he maintained, would benefit commuters and farmers; lower energy and logistics costs, support manufacturers while falling production costs would help moderate inflation and restore purchasing power.
He added: “The ultimate objective is not merely cheaper petrol. It is cheaper transportation, cheaper food, stronger businesses, more Nigerian jobs and greater purchasing power.
“Nigeria’s crude should first help build Nigerian refining capacity and Nigerian prosperity.”
Atiku said the transparency built into his proposal stands in stark contrast to Tinubu’s handling of subsidy removal.
“President Tinubu stood at Eagle Square on May 29, 2023 and declared that ‘subsidy is gone.’ Nigerians were immediately handed the bill. Petrol prices exploded, transportation costs multiplied, food prices soared and households were told that their suffering was the necessary price of reform.
“But after Nigerians paid that price, the government’s own accounts created questions that President Tinubu has still not satisfactorily answered,” he said.
Atiku cited NNPCL’s audited financial statements recording approximately N4.84 trillion in Energy Security Expenses in 2023 and N7.13 trillion in 2024, saying Nigerians deserve a precise explanation of the economic substance of those expenses and the extent to which they incorporate under-recoveries, pricing differentials or other costs associated with petroleum supply.
“We are not interested in playing games with accounting terminology. If government continued absorbing differences between the economic cost of petroleum products and what was recovered from the market, then Nigerians are entitled to ask how that differs economically from the subsidy they were told had disappeared.
“You cannot abolish subsidy at Eagle Square and allow subsidy-like costs to resurface in government accounts without explaining the contradiction,” he stated.
Atiku said Nigerians cannot be expected to bear market-level pump prices on the promise that subsidy has ended while Federation resources simultaneously bear petroleum-related costs that remain insufficiently explained.
“Nigerians cannot pay for subsidy removal twice — through punishing pump prices and through unexplained subsidy-like costs against their commonwealth.”
Atiku said the petroleum controversy must also be viewed within the wider questions surrounding the management of Federation revenues.
“Our reconciliation of published Federation Account figures has identified approximately N30 trillion in revenues, deductions, savings, transfers and related funds requiring transparent reconciliation.
“Let nobody misrepresent the argument. We are not saying N30 trillion is fuel subsidy or that N30 trillion has been proven stolen. We are saying that approximately N30 trillion reflected across Federation revenues, deductions, savings, transfers and related classifications requires a complete, month-by-month public reconciliation,” he said.
Atiku said Tinubu must therefore answer two separate questions: “First, if subsidy was removed, where is the subsidy-removal windfall and what precisely are the petroleum-related costs subsequently recorded in the government’s accounts?
“Second, what accounts for the approximately N30 trillion in Federation revenues, deductions, savings, transfers and related funds requiring reconciliation?
“These are government figures. The accounts are in government’s custody. The burden cannot be transferred to Nigerians or the opposition. Publish every deduction. Identify every beneficiary. Show every transfer. Show every balance. Show the legal authority. If the money is properly accounted for, open the books and end the argument,” he said.
Atiku also vowed that previous subsidy transactions would be subjected to lawful scrutiny and that any person found through due process to have fraudulently obtained or diverted public subsidy funds would face prosecution and asset recovery.
“Anyone who stole subsidy money should prepare to return it. But we will not replace one opaque system with another.”
Tinubu: Plan To Return Fuel Subsidy Shows Atiku’s Ignorance
President Tinubu yesterday flayed Atiku over his plan to return fuel subsidy if elected President next year, saying the ex-number two man is ignorant of governance and economy.
Speaking while receiving in audience at the State House, Abuja, Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun state, he declared that the move by Atiku to reintroduce petrol subsidy showed his high level of ignorance in governance and economy
He said: “Let’s look at the trajectory of the history. I saw one of my opponents now say he will go back to subsidy. I read it. That is demonstration of a serious ignorance on governance and economy.”
The President buttressed his argument with the fact that before the removal of fuel subsidies by his administration over three years ago, no fewer that 27 state were unable to pay salaries of workers.
According to him, the governors were always coming cap in hand to Abuja to beg for bailout from the government at the centre.
His said: “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 is nicknamed half salary.
“They come to the federal government, cap in hand, unable to do anything. Salary you pay for each families. They were at the local governments too. They are in the states. We are at the concentration of population.”
Tinubu advised Osun governor who just secured a second term in office to reconcile with his opponents during last Saturday’s election in the state.
He stressed that taking such step will show his appreciation to the people and not necessarily through singing.The President also used himself as an example saying it’s through the grace of God that he got to where he is at the moment.
Said he: “All for the reconciliation, expand your coast. That is the only way you can give thanks to our people. Not the way you sang it or celebrated it. It’s the way you act it. Use me as an example. And I got here. God put me here. Where you are today, God put you there. Not the smartness of any of these people.
‘It’s just their support, not their smartness. It’s the wish of God that prevailed and the wish of the people for you. And you are in a very, very unique position to make history, promote unity, peace, and stability.
“Use it. It started as a progressive. All you are doing now is progressive instinct. And you did a very good mobilization with your team. Very good job. You saw fear. You screamed. Promote democracy. Promote stability. Promotes rule of law. Don’t stigmatize any of your opponent.”
Speaking with newsmen after the visit, Adeleke said he was at the Villa to appreciate the President for ensuring that people’s will prevailed during last Saturday’s election in Osun State.
His words: “I’m here to thank Mr. President, the father of the nation, because he fought for this democracy. That is why he allowed free and fair election, and that is the result. That is why I’m here, to say thank him for ensuring that democracy lives in Nigeria.”
Ex-VP in Major Volte Face, Alters Past Views on Subsidy
However, Atiku’s renewed promise to restore petrol subsidy has brought his past position on the controversial policy back into focus, with his earlier public statements showing that he once strongly backed the removal of subsidy and the liberalisation of the downstream petroleum sector.
In a series of statements between 2020 and 2023, , Atiku welcomed the move to remove fuel subsidy, describing subsidy and price fixing as a source of corruption and a constraint on investment.
Atiku’s position at the time was that the government should move away from regulating petrol prices and allow market forces to determine prices, while redirecting resources towards expanding domestic refining capacity and strengthening the economy.
He had also argued that Nigeria could no longer afford to continue spending public funds to support petrol prices, particularly when the country lacked sufficient fiscal resources and domestic refining capacity.
The former Vice President’s position was also rooted in his experience in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, where he said he was involved in negotiations with organised labour over efforts to progressively withdraw fuel subsidy.
“FG finally withdraws from the fuel subsidy and price-fixing bazaar that had been rife with corruption and stalling investments. This is something patriots have been calling for and for which I was demonised.
“The Obasanjo government in which I served commenced a phased subsidy withdrawal. I was tasked with negotiating with then NLC Chairman and current APC Chairman who stood strongly against it.
“The stoppage of subsidy and price-fixing is a right move, although it should have come earlier when the economy was stronger.
“Nonetheless, we achieved two phases of subsidy removal of fuel and complete withdrawal of subsidy of diesel before we left office. -AA”, a review of his tweets in the past showed.
His latest position, therefore, represents a significant shift in the political argument over the policy.
Presidency: Atiku Position from Nigeria’s Archaic Past
But in a riposte, the Presidency stated that the ‘perennial candidate for the presidency of Nigeria,’ has finally revealed his economic plans to Nigerians, should he be elected as President by January next year.
“Against expectations that he would announce a more creative and ingenious alternative to the programme being executed by the Tinubu administration, Atiku Abubakar behaved like a man from an archaic past who least comprehends the present economic dynamics and suggested that he would restore the much-abused, wasteful, pillaged, corruption-ridden fuel subsidy regime, which the Petroleum Industry Act made illegal from the end of June, 2023.
“Even though he used to believe that the subsidy regime must be eliminated, a point he canvassed in the run-up to his defeat in the 2023 election, he has now opportunistically recanted the major plank of his economic doctrine and turned a renegade.
“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. But before his suggestion hoodwinks the people, we must quickly subject the promise to a serious examination, especially in the context of Nigeria’s present economic and petroleum realities,” the Presidency stated.
Stressing that it respects Atiku’s constitutional right to propose alternative policies, to seek the support of Nigerians and recant a major policy prescription, however the Tinubu administration said Nigerians also deserve to understand what the proposed restoration of subsidy would actually mean, how it would be funded, and whether it is compatible with the legal and structural changes that have taken place in the petroleum sector.
“First, we must clear some ambiguities about the so-called subsidy. It is not some money sitting in the treasury to be disbursed to offer cheap fuel to Nigerians. It is the massive discount the NNPC offered the Nigerian government: selling fuel it bought at N100 at N50 at the pump, leading to under-recovery of costs and massive losses. Somewhere in the NNPC books are still trillions of Naira in subsidy costs that the Nigerian government has not paid. Contrary to Atiku’s claim in his interview, no N30 trillion subsidy windfall or savings exists anywhere except in his imagination.
“The petrol subsidy regime that Nigerians knew before May 2023 was dismantled as part of the country’s petroleum-sector reforms. The Petroleum Industry Act established a new framework for the downstream petroleum market. It removed the subsidy, as was previously done for diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel, ending a system that had placed a substantial and often unpredictable burden on public finances. The PIA scheduled the subsidy removal by the end of June 2023. President Tinubu only accelerated it by weeks to stop further bleeding before the due date.
“Restoring the old arrangement therefore cannot simply be presented as a matter of announcing that government will once again pay part of the cost of petrol. It would require a clear legal, fiscal and administrative framework, including identifying the source of the funds and determining how such a policy would be implemented under the present petroleum-market structure,” Onanuga’s statement said.
More importantly, it pointed out that Nigeria’s petroleum landscape has changed significantly since May 2023, explaining that for many years, the country relied heavily on imported petrol, with the government bearing the consequences of the gap between the regulated pump price and the cost of supplying the product.
“Today, the emergence of substantial domestic refining capacity has fundamentally altered that equation. The Dangote Refinery has become a major source of locally refined petrol. Indeed, the Dangote Refinery would not have kickstarted production for local consumption were the subsidy regime operative. This is an important point that Atiku deceptively ignored.
“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. Because the sector is now market-driven, Nigeria now exports refined products to Europe, Asia, and the United States, restoring national pride. This development is a sharp contrast to when Obasanjo and Atiku were in power: Nigeria’s largest import, costing about $10 billion, was refined products!. President Tinubu has flipped that to Nigeria’s advantage.
“The N15 trillion that would have been borrowed and spent on selling discounted petrol has now significantly gone into the coffers of the three tiers of government. Now all states are fiscally stable and can pay salaries regularly and embark on infrastructure projects. In July, the three tiers shared about N3 trillion, a record, from the federation account. That is a major achievement, since the abolition of petrol price discount and distortions in the foreign exchange regime.
“Nigeria is increasingly moving from a model in which scarce foreign exchange is used to import refined petrol to one in which crude oil, largely sold in Naira, can be processed domestically and supplied to the Nigerian market. That transition creates opportunities for greater energy security, foreign-exchange conservation, industrial development and ultimately a boost to employment generation,” it argued.
The subsidy debate, it said, must therefore be grounded in the realities of today’s market rather than treated as though Nigeria’s petroleum sector has remained unchanged.
The former petrol price discount arrangement, it pointed out, was not simply government handing out a harmless discount.
“It involved the public sector absorbing the difference between regulated prices and the actual cost of supplying petrol, with substantial fiscal consequences.
“At various points, the government financed or accommodated the burden through borrowing and other public-sector financing arrangements. Millions of barrels of crude oil had previously
Wike Attacks Ex-VP, Says He Will Never be President
Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, has lambasted former Vice-President Atiku, as a confused, voodoo economist, who would impress voters just because he wanted to become president.
Wike made the remarks yesterday at an inspection of ongoing infrastructure projects in the FCT in relation to Atiku’s remarks that he would remove fuel subsidy within his first 100 days in office, if he became the President.
The FCT minister rebuked the candidate of the ADC in next year’s presidential election as an inconsistent politician, seeking to reverse a policy he previously condemned.
“Atiku, who is confused, who acts like a voodoo economist, will say anything just to be president. This was a man in 2022 who said he was going to remove the fuel subsidy because it was a fraud.
“Will Atiku, as President (which he will never be) pay subsidy on fuel produced by Dangote Refinery? Now, in 2026, he says he is not going to remove the fuel subsidy. Is he going back to the fraud, which he had alleged that fuel subsidy was?”, he said.
Wike, who projected an easy run for Tinubu in the 2027 elections, stressed that political opposition was not defined merely by political parties fielding candidates, but by a cohesive front committed to offering genuine alternatives.
“They have only one leading candidate, and that’s Bola Tinubu. I have told people this would be the easiest election.
“I say so because we have no opposition that wants to wrestle power from the government. No opposition is united to say, ‘Really, we want to remove this government in power,” he said.
The former governor of Rivers State accused the former vice president of having a tendency of arbitrarily changing his views to suit prevailing political circumstances.
“Leadership is not you coming out, you say one thing now in the morning, in the afternoon you say a different thing, in the night you are talking of a different thing. That is not it,” he said.
He accused Atiku of living in the past in relation to the implementation of the fuel subsidy regime, particularly with the commercialisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the emergence of the Dangote Refinery.
He flayed Atiku of failing to come to terms that the NNPC is now fully commercialised with the Petroleum Industry Act and has transformed into a limited liability company (NNPC Limited), and no longer the sole importer or producer of fuel.
“It shows that he (Atiku) is confused, having insisted in the past that he will remove subsidy, which he described as a fraud. Does it now mean that he will restore what he said was a fraud?”
