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The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Felix Morka, has criticised former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and his spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, accusing them of lacking a proper understanding of how Nigeria’s economy works.
Morka made the remark during an interview on ARISE News, while responding to comments by Atiku and Abdullahi on the removal of fuel subsidy and the possibility of restoring the policy ahead of the 2027 elections.
He described the duo as either “utterly clueless” about the economy or deliberately being disingenuous in their public statements.
“Bolaji Abdullahi and his principal, the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, are clueless. They’re either utterly clueless or they’re just being very disingenuous,” Morka said.
According to him, discussions by Atiku and Abdullahi on subsidy fail to adequately address the enormous financial implications of maintaining such a policy.
Morka said subsidy should not be presented as a simple government intervention because it requires substantial financial resources and careful planning.
“Every time they speak about the economy, they are tongue-tied. They’re not speaking like people who have any knowledge of how the country’s economy actually works,” he said.
The APC spokesman argued that the cost of energy was a global issue and that factors influencing petrol prices were not peculiar to Nigeria.
He said international crude oil prices and other global market forces were among the factors affecting fuel prices in the country.
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Morka also challenged Atiku to provide concrete figures on how he would finance any proposed subsidy regime.
“When Atiku says, ‘I’m going to give subsidy,’ I think that Atiku needs to sit down with his advisers and put numbers to that conversation,” he said.
He questioned whether Atiku expected a future administration to use Nigeria’s foreign reserves to fund fuel subsidies, describing such an approach as irresponsible.
Morka further defended Tinubu’s economic reforms, arguing that the president inherited longstanding economic problems rather than creating them.
He accused Atiku, who served as vice-president during the administration of the Peoples Democratic Party, of being part of the political leadership that governed Nigeria for years before the APC came to power.
“Atiku Abubakar, for 16 years his party was in power, was one of the key actors, one of the star actors that decimated the economy of this country, that this president is fixing,” Morka said.
He also referred to Atiku’s past comments concerning funds allocated to the power sector, alleging that the former vice-president had acknowledged that $16 billion was spent without delivering the expected electricity infrastructure.
Morka described that as a matter of Atiku’s own admission rather than something requiring a separate conviction.
He said Nigerians would ultimately assess the competing arguments about the economy and decide whether the Tinubu administration’s reforms represented a better direction for the country.
