Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has rejected the Federal Government's newly announced 30-day discount on petrol, describing it as a temporary and politically motivated package that fails to address the real hardship Nigerians are facing.
Atiku, in a statement issued through Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Presidential Campaign Council, said the intervention is coming too late after years of steep fuel price hikes and rising cost of living under President Bola Tinubu's administration.
He said Nigerians should not be deceived into accepting a one-month relief as a solution to an economic crisis that has lasted for over two years.
According to him, the proposed discount is not only short-term but also appears to be tailored towards the forthcoming elections rather than a genuine effort to ease suffering.
“Atiku totally rejects this calendar-scheduled, election-laced subsidy package. Nigerians are not fools to be offered a month of discounted fuel after years of punishing prices and then expected to forget the hardship when the discount expires,” he stated.
The former Vice President queried what would become of Nigerians after the 30-day window closes, warning that pump prices, transport fares and food prices would return to their current high levels.
“What happens on Day 31? Nigerians wake up to the same brutal prices, the same punishing transport fares and the same rising cost of food,” Atiku asked.
He also picked holes in the implementation plan, noting that the discount will only apply to petrol sold at stations belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, without a clear disclosure of how much would be saved per litre.
Atiku further questioned how the government intends to ensure that transporters who benefit from the discounted fuel would reduce fares for passengers.
The Federal Government, through the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, had on Thursday announced the 30-day discount at a press briefing in Abuja, with priority for public transporters.
Oyedele had said the measure was not a subsidy but an arrangement to sell petrol at cost price as part of efforts to stabilise pump prices.
Reacting, Atiku said the government’s move amounts to an admission that its fuel pricing policy has inflicted hardship and that his own proposal for production support is workable.
“This volte-face proves that the production-support proposal I have advanced is workable, achievable and not complicated,” he said.
He reiterated his call for a capped and budgeted production support framework tied to locally refined petrol, with transparent mechanisms to ensure that consumers actually benefit while encouraging domestic refining.
Atiku insisted that what Nigerians need is a sustainable and lasting solution to the high cost of living, not a countdown to further hardship.
“Nigerians need lasting relief, not a countdown to the return of hardship. Tinubu’s government cannot spend years telling Nigerians to endure, then offer 30 days of relief and call it a solution,” he said.
“Tinubu made life expensive. I will make life affordable again,” Atiku added.
