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African Democratic Congress (ADC) 2027 presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has said that Nigerians deserve more than statistics on the economic reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, stated that besides celebrating statistics, President Tinubu should point out measurable improvements in the average Nigerian household as a result of his policies.
The former Vice-President reiterated that the removal of fuel subsidy by the present administration had plunged citizens into more hardship, owing to sharp increases in transportation costs and the cost of living.
According to him, “Saudi Arabia sells petrol at about ₦778 per litre. Kuwait is around ₦872. Algeria is about ₦475. Angola is about ₦441. Even the United Arab Emirates, where average incomes are vastly higher than Nigeria’s, sells petrol below Nigeria’s roughly ₦1,400 per litre.
“These countries did not conclude that oil production requires punishing citizens at the pump. In different ways, they have used their natural-resource advantage to moderate the energy burden on their people. Nigeria has turned that advantage upside down. Our people earn less, live under greater pressure and yet pay more for the fuel that drives transportation, farming, food distribution, manufacturing and virtually every aspect of daily life.
“How did your celebrated reform leave Nigerians paying vastly more for fuel while enjoying a lower standard of human development? That is not merely a pump-price debate. It is an affordability scandal.
“A Nigerian earning the ₦70,000 statutory minimum wage requires ₦56,000 merely to buy 40 litres of petrol at ₦1,400 per litre. That is 80 per cent of an entire month’s minimum wage. Before that worker buys food, pays rent, electricity, school fees or medical bills, four-fifths of his monthly wage can disappear into just 40 litres of petrol.
“Meanwhile, citizens of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE generally earn vastly more while paying less per litre. That is the human face missing from your economic argument.
“And the pain does not end at the petrol station. Take the woman selling tomatoes at Mile 12. The farmer pays for energy to cultivate. A vehicle moves the tomatoes from the farm. Another truck carries them hundreds of kilometres to Lagos. The wholesaler pays transport. The retailer pays transport again. By the time those tomatoes reach the mother preparing dinner, expensive fuel has entered the final price several times over.”
Furthermore, the ADC candidate added that while the government “celebrates statistics, Nigerians still deserve answers about the enormous sums surrounding your so-called reforms. Your government says subsidy removal mobilised about ₦15.8 trillion between June 2023 and December 2025. Nigerians surrendered cheap fuel.
“They paid more for transportation. They paid more for food. They watched the value of their wages collapse. So what measurable improvement reached the average Nigerian household in exchange for that sacrifice?
“We have also repeatedly demanded a comprehensive reconciliation of the nearly ₦30 trillion identified across Federation Account revenues, deductions, savings, transfers and related entries. If our reconciliation is wrong, publish the complete ledger and establish the facts.
‘There is equally the disclosure that Import Duty Exemption Certificate approvals covered about ₦34 trillion worth of imports in 2025. Nigerians deserve to know who benefited, the values attached to those exemptions, their legal basis and the measurable public benefit they delivered.
“So when you suddenly announce that relief is coming ‘in the next few weeks,’ Nigerians are entitled to ask: Why now? The answer is becoming increasingly obvious. After more than three years of hardship, Nigerians are now being offered a temporary dose of political anaesthesia as 2027 approaches. God forbid that Nigerians should mistake election-season relief for economic recovery.”
The ADC candidate, who noted that his Atiku Economic Recovery Plan (AERP) is geared towards reducing the cost of fuel at source, said the price would therefore not explode.
“Under AERP, support would be targeted at Nigerian crude supplied for domestic refining within a capped, transparently budgeted and independently audited framework. The crude would be tracked. Refined products would be monitored. And the intervention would carry a clear consumer pass-through obligation so that the benefit does not stop with the refinery or marketer but reaches Nigerians at the pump.”
