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African Democratic Congress (ADC) 2027 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has demanded that President Bola Tinubu apologise to him and Nigerians for ridiculing his proposal to reintroduce fuel subsidy, which would be targeted at production, if elected president in next year’s election.
Atiku, who is also a former vice president, said apart from apologising to him and Nigerians, President Tinubu should quietly withdraw from the 2027 contest or be defeated at the polls.
The former vice president, who was reacting to a call by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) for the Federal Government to provide support for domestic refiners to reduce petrol prices, said the marketers’ intervention was a vindication of his proposal to make energy affordable.
Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said IPMAN’s intervention was significant, as it came from operators in the industry who understand the effect of the high cost of petrol on businesses and Nigerian households.
The ADC candidate, who is also a former vice president, recently unveiled a proposal to reintroduce fuel subsidy, which would be targeted at production, if elected president, so as to reduce the cost of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
However, the Presidency dismissed the proposed return of the fuel subsidy, which was abolished in 2023 by President Bola Tinubu on assumption of office, as economic ignorance. However, IPMAN, on Tuesday, reportedly called on the government to give intervention to domestic refiners as a way of bringing down the cost of fuel.
Atiku, who maintained that his proposal would also strengthen important objectives of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), including promoting petroleum processing within Nigeria and ensuring safe and affordable access to petroleum products, stated that the law “recognises that local refining and affordability matter.”
According to him, “IPMAN has come late to this conversation, but it has come to the right conclusion. The association is now saying that government cannot simply stand aside while petrol prices punish Nigerians and that deliberate subsidy around domestic refining can help bring prices down. That is precisely the policy principle President Tinubu and his gang of jesters have spent weeks trying to ridicule.
“Tinubu’s argument has always depended on deliberately confusing the import-subsidy bazaar and a transparent, production-linked intervention that strengthens Nigerian refining and delivers measurable relief to Nigerian consumers.
“Let me put it to President Tinubu in simple English: the difference between the import subsidy and the policy I have put before Nigerians is the difference between a farmer who harvests cassava, sells it all cheaply and then travels elsewhere to buy expensive garri for his family, and one who builds the capacity to process his cassava at home.
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“Nigeria produces crude oil. It is economic foolishness to possess the raw material, fail to maximise its processing at home and then tell Nigerians that unaffordable fuel is the price they must pay for reform.”
He added that “the DailyFuels Fuel Affordability Index places Nigeria at number 91 on its affordability ranking and estimates that the average Nigerian requires about 44 minutes of work to afford one litre of petrol. A 40-litre tank represents about 29.5 hours of work under its methodology.
“That is the Tinubu economy in one statistic. Petrol may appear cheap when converted into dollars and compared with richer countries, but Nigerians do not earn American or European salaries.”
“I welcome IPMAN. Let us prepare together for 2027 — marketers, refiners, regulators, consumers and independent monitors — and build a system where support follows the Nigerian barrel and relief follows that support all the way to the filling station. That is the contract we offer Nigerians: local capacity first, transparency first, purchasing power first and affordable energy first.
“President Tinubu had the opportunity to put Nigerians first when they needed relief most. He chose hardship and called it reform.
“There are therefore two honourable options before him now: apologise to Atiku Abubakar and, more importantly, to the Nigerian people for ridiculing a policy principle that major petroleum-sector players are beginning to recognise and quietly withdraw from the 2027 presidential contest or wait to be rejected at the polls in January.
“This is not about Tinubu or Atiku. It is about Nigerians. You cannot empty their pockets, call it reform, ridicule the ideas intended to make their lives affordable and then ask them to reward you with another four years.
“Tinubu may continue defending expensive petrol. We will continue building the coalition that will make Nigeria affordable again from 2027.”
