•100million Tinubus can’t stop me — Atiku

•Ex-VP politicising economy with flip-flops on subsidy—Presidency

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru & Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA—Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has declared that no amount of resistance from President Bola Tinubu or “millions of his gang of economic jesters” could stop him from restoring a targeted fuel subsidy to Nigerians, accusing the administration of dressing up subsidy removal as reform while quietly extending fiscal concessions to oil investors.

But the Presidency in a swift reaction, accused the former vice president of politicising Nigeria’s economy after he renewed calls to restore the petrol subsidy, saying the stance sharply contradicted the economic position he took during the 2023 presidential campaign.

However, Atiku in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, in Abuja yesterday, said the President’s claim to have abolished subsidy could not be reconciled with tax credits and other incentives still available to petroleum operators.

He anchored his case in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL’s own audited accounts, arguing that the figures contradicted the government’s insistence that subsidy had ended.

“In 2023, NNPC’s accounts recorded approximately N4.84 trillion as energy-security expenses and related shortfalls, while its 2024 audited financial statements subsequently recorded about N7.13 trillion under energy-security expenses. 

‘’NNPC itself explained that this expense arises partly from the difference between the exchange rate used to determine the regulated PMS ex-coastal price and the prevailing exchange rate when the import obligation is settled. 

‘’In plain English, government was still absorbing a price differential after Tinubu had triumphantly announced that subsidy was gone,” the statement read.

Atiku said the naming of the expense as a “shortfall” rather than subsidy did not change its substance, insisting that Nigerians were not interested in the terminology used to describe public money spent bridging the same price gap.

“Nigerians do not eat semantics. Whether government calls it subsidy, under-recovery, shortfall or energy security, public resources were being used to bridge a gap between economic cost and the price at which petrol was sold. You cannot abolish subsidy at the podium and resurrect it in the accounts under an alias,” he said.

He also cited the Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives framework, under which qualifying petroleum developments could access production tax credits beginning at $3 and $4.50 per barrel, as evidence that the government readily intervened in the market when investors stood to benefit.

Contrasting that posture with the government’s stance on household relief, Atiku accused the administration of applying one economic standard to corporations and another to citizens.

“The government can protect a multi-billion-dollar oil investment from risk, yet it says protecting the Nigerian worker from crushing hardship is bad economics. 

‘’It can bend policy to make every barrel of crude more profitable, but tells a struggling mother that making the litre of petrol she needs to take her children to school more affordable is irresponsible,” he said.

Atiku politicizing nation’s economy with his flip-flops on subsidy – Presidency

Replying him last night, Sunday Dare, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, said in a statement that Atiku had earlier called for the removal of petrol subsidy, describing the regime as unsustainable, opaque and prone to corruption

Titled “Atiku’s Subsidy U-Turn: The Bankruptcy of Desperate Ambition, “ Dare said:  “In the architecture of modern political opportunism, few spectacles rival the breathtaking hypocrisy of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s recent policy pivot. 

“To watch a self-styled statesman, who less than four years ago cast himself as an uncompromising apostle of market-driven reform, scramble to promise the reintroduction of petrol subsidies is nothing short of political apostasy. 

“This isn’t merely a tactical policy disagreement; it is a sordid, stingy manipulation of the public psyche, designed to hoodwink unsuspecting citizens through an unpardonable exploitation of temporary economic pain. 

“Atiku’s vacillation stands as a monument to a fading presidential ambition gone completely awry, exposing a man willing to burn down national economic stability for a fleeting headline.”

On what he described as a chronicle of political duplicity, he said: “Let us refresh the collective memory of the Nigerian electorate, which Atiku so cynically presumes to be short. During the intense build-up to the 2023 general election, Atiku made the total removal of the fuel subsidy the absolute cornerstone of his economic manifesto.

“He argued with unyielding conviction, repeatedly echoed across national media platforms, including broad coverage by outlets like Premium Times and The Punch—that the opaque, corruption-ridden import subsidy regime was bleeding the nation dry, enriching a parasitic cabal, and mortgaging the future of generations unborn.

“Yet, as the political calendar ticks toward the next electoral cycle and the reality of his diminished prospects sets in, Atiku has engineered a shameless volte-face. The architect of yesterday’s fiscal discipline has overnight transformed into the high priest of populist pandering. 

“This radical reversal is the ultimate hallmark of a desperate politician who cares less about long-term fiscal sustainability and more about capturing power by any means necessary. It is a cynical bet that Nigerians have forgotten his own economic doctrine—a scorched-earth strategy that weaponizes current hardships against the very structural reforms he once championed.”