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African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of presiding over a collapse in agricultural export earnings while farmers struggle with insecurity and manufacturers confront “punishing” production costs.
Atiku, in a statement by the director of strategic communication, ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, said the Tinubu administration promised to build a productive economy, but has allegedly left the country selling crops abroad without “capturing enough of the processing jobs and value they can generate at home”.
The former vice-president noted that “Nigeria’s agricultural trade swung from a ₦740.27 billion surplus in the first half of 2025 to a ₦56.13 billion deficit in the first half of 2026 — a ₦796.40 billion reversal in one year. Agricultural exports fell by 33.3 per cent, far faster than imports, which also declined.”
He noted that “the excuse that Nigerians simply imported too much will not stand. Tinubu’s government must answer for the collapse in what Nigeria sold to the world. The country is losing export earnings, and the President owes farmers, workers and businesses more than another speech about prosperity.”
Atiku, while querying what the present administration has done to make the farms safer and cheaper to move produce or more profitable to sell a finished Nigerian product abroad, noted that farmers cannot cultivate promises, just as manufacturers cannot power factories with speeches.
According to him, “we grow the crop. Someone else does more of the processing, builds a business around it and earns the larger return. Then Tinubu speaks of jobs while Nigerian factories struggle to compete. He has made production expensive and called the resulting hardship reform.
“A trade deficit alone does not explain every problem on our farms. But after more than three years in office, the President owns the decisions that have left farmers exposed and producers burdened. He cannot claim credit for every favourable statistic and disown a ₦796.40 billion reversal when the figures turn against him.”
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The ADC candidate explained that his proposed production subsidy for petroleum products refined in Nigeria is aimed at keeping more production, work and value at home.
He explained that the support would “cover qualifying products from Nigerian refineries, including modular refineries. Imported products would not qualify. It would be capped, budgeted and independently audited, with measures to track whether savings reach consumers and businesses.”
Furthermore, Atiku stated that the President Tinubu administration’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative has allegedly failed abysmally as a relief measure, noting that the cost of converting vehicles is beyond the reach of many poor Nigerians. He added that while conversion kits are difficult to access, the buses presented by the government as palliatives remain unavailable to many of the people who need them.
“Local refining is about more than the price at the petrol pump. Aviation fuel affects fares. LPG affects the cost of cooking. Petroleum products and feedstocks affect industries and the people they employ. Nigerians need practical relief they can actually access — not schemes whose costs and shortages put the promised benefits out of reach. The value of our resources must reach Nigerians beyond the refinery gate.
“My administration will begin restoring a transparent production subsidy from Day One. We will back farmers and processors with the same determination. Grow it here. Process it here. Refine it here. Create the jobs here. Make life affordable here.
“Tinubu’s record is becoming painfully clear: Nigeria supplies raw crops and crude oil while Nigerians pay dearly for finished goods. A government that cannot turn our resources into affordable products and decent jobs has failed the people it was elected to serve,” he stated.
