President Tinubu on Thursday flayed Atiku over his plan to return fuel subsidy if elected President next year, saying the ex-number two man is ignorant of governance and economy.
Speaking while receiving in audience at the State House, Abuja, Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun state, he declared that the move by Atiku to reintroduce petrol subsidy showed his high level of ignorance in governance and economy
He said: “Let’s look at the trajectory of the history. I saw one of my opponents now say he will go back to subsidy. I read it. That is demonstration of a serious ignorance on governance and economy.”
The President buttressed his argument with the fact that before the removal of fuel subsidies by his administration over three years ago, no fewer that 27 state were unable to pay salaries of workers.
According to him, the governors were always coming cap in hand to Abuja to beg for bailout from the government at the centre.
His said: “Before I came here, 27 states were unable to pay salaries, not to even talk of pensioners, salary of workers. In your state, I know a man that I raised who is nicknamed half salary.
“They come to the federal government, cap in hand, unable to do anything. Salary you pay for each families. They were at the local governments too. They are in the states. We are at the concentration of population.”
Tinubu advised Osun governor who just secured a second term in office to reconcile with his opponents during last Saturday’s election in the state.
He stressed that taking such step will show his appreciation to the people and not necessarily through singing.The President also used himself as an example saying it’s through the grace of God that he got to where he is at the moment.
Said he: “All for the reconciliation, expand your coast. That is the only way you can give thanks to our people. Not the way you sang it or celebrated it. It’s the way you act it. Use me as an example. And I got here. God put me here. Where you are today, God put you there. Not the smartness of any of these people.
‘It’s just their support, not their smartness. It’s the wish of God that prevailed and the wish of the people for you. And you are in a very, very unique position to make history, promote unity, peace, and stability.
“Use it. It started as a progressive. All you are doing now is progressive instinct. And you did a very good mobilization with your team. Very good job. You saw fear. You screamed. Promote democracy. Promote stability. Promotes rule of law. Don’t stigmatize any of your opponent.”
Speaking with newsmen after the visit, Adeleke said he was at the Villa to appreciate the President for ensuring that people’s will prevailed during last Saturday’s election in Osun State.
His words: “I’m here to thank Mr. President, the father of the nation, because he fought for this democracy. That is why he allowed free and fair election, and that is the result. That is why I’m here, to say thank him for ensuring that democracy lives in Nigeria.”
Ex-VP in Major Volte Face, Alters Past Views on Subsidy
However, Atiku’s renewed promise to restore petrol subsidy has brought his past position on the controversial policy back into focus, with his earlier public statements showing that he once strongly backed the removal of subsidy and the liberalisation of the downstream petroleum sector.
In a series of statements between 2020 and 2023, , Atiku welcomed the move to remove fuel subsidy, describing subsidy and price fixing as a source of corruption and a constraint on investment.
Atiku’s position at the time was that the government should move away from regulating petrol prices and allow market forces to determine prices, while redirecting resources towards expanding domestic refining capacity and strengthening the economy.
He had also argued that Nigeria could no longer afford to continue spending public funds to support petrol prices, particularly when the country lacked sufficient fiscal resources and domestic refining capacity.
The former Vice President’s position was also rooted in his experience in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, where he said he was involved in negotiations with organised labour over efforts to progressively withdraw fuel subsidy.
“FG finally withdraws from the fuel subsidy and price-fixing bazaar that had been rife with corruption and stalling investments. This is something patriots have been calling for and for which I was demonised.
“The Obasanjo government in which I served commenced a phased subsidy withdrawal. I was tasked with negotiating with then NLC Chairman and current APC Chairman who stood strongly against it.
“The stoppage of subsidy and price-fixing is a right move, although it should have come earlier when the economy was stronger.
“Nonetheless, we achieved two phases of subsidy removal of fuel and complete withdrawal of subsidy of diesel before we left office. -AA”, a review of his tweets in the past showed.
His latest position, therefore, represents a significant shift in the political argument over the policy.
Presidency: Atiku Position from Nigeria’s Archaic Past
But in a riposte, the Presidency stated that the ‘perennial candidate for the presidency of Nigeria,’ has finally revealed his economic plans to Nigerians, should he be elected as President by January next year.
“Against expectations that he would announce a more creative and ingenious alternative to the programme being executed by the Tinubu administration, Atiku Abubakar behaved like a man from an archaic past who least comprehends the present economic dynamics and suggested that he would restore the much-abused, wasteful, pillaged, corruption-ridden fuel subsidy regime, which the Petroleum Industry Act made illegal from the end of June, 2023.
“Even though he used to believe that the subsidy regime must be eliminated, a point he canvassed in the run-up to his defeat in the 2023 election, he has now opportunistically recanted the major plank of his economic doctrine and turned a renegade.
“It is not difficult to explain why Atiku has latched onto the abandoned subsidy regime, five months to the election. Desperate for power, he needed to make a promise that he knew, if he were candid with our people, does not make fiscal sense, is retrogressive, and is against the genuine interest of the people. But before his suggestion hoodwinks the people, we must quickly subject the promise to a serious examination, especially in the context of Nigeria’s present economic and petroleum realities,” the Presidency stated.
Stressing that it respects Atiku’s constitutional right to propose alternative policies, to seek the support of Nigerians and recant a major policy prescription, however the Tinubu administration said Nigerians also deserve to understand what the proposed restoration of subsidy would actually mean, how it would be funded, and whether it is compatible with the legal and structural changes that have taken place in the petroleum sector.
“First, we must clear some ambiguities about the so-called subsidy. It is not some money sitting in the treasury to be disbursed to offer cheap fuel to Nigerians. It is the massive discount the NNPC offered the Nigerian government: selling fuel it bought at N100 at N50 at the pump, leading to under-recovery of costs and massive losses. Somewhere in the NNPC books are still trillions of Naira in subsidy costs that the Nigerian government has not paid. Contrary to Atiku’s claim in his interview, no N30 trillion subsidy windfall or savings exists anywhere except in his imagination.
“The petrol subsidy regime that Nigerians knew before May 2023 was dismantled as part of the country’s petroleum-sector reforms. The Petroleum Industry Act established a new framework for the downstream petroleum market. It removed the subsidy, as was previously done for diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel, ending a system that had placed a substantial and often unpredictable burden on public finances. The PIA scheduled the subsidy removal by the end of June 2023. President Tinubu only accelerated it by weeks to stop further bleeding before the due date.
“Restoring the old arrangement therefore cannot simply be presented as a matter of announcing that government will once again pay part of the cost of petrol. It would require a clear legal, fiscal and administrative framework, including identifying the source of the funds and determining how such a policy would be implemented under the present petroleum-market structure,” Onanuga’s statement said.
More importantly, it pointed out that Nigeria’s petroleum landscape has changed significantly since May 2023, explaining that for many years, the country relied heavily on imported petrol, with the government bearing the consequences of the gap between the regulated pump price and the cost of supplying the product.
“Today, the emergence of substantial domestic refining capacity has fundamentally altered that equation. The Dangote Refinery has become a major source of locally refined petrol. Indeed, the Dangote Refinery would not have kickstarted production for local consumption were the subsidy regime operative. This is an important point that Atiku deceptively ignored.
“Atiku’s proposal portends a reversal of current local production, and it will spell bankruptcy for smaller local refineries like Aradel’s, causing attendant job losses and a loss of foreign exchange. Because the sector is now market-driven, Nigeria now exports refined products to Europe, Asia, and the United States, restoring national pride. This development is a sharp contrast to when Obasanjo and Atiku were in power: Nigeria’s largest import, costing about $10 billion, was refined products!. President Tinubu has flipped that to Nigeria’s advantage.
“The N15 trillion that would have been borrowed and spent on selling discounted petrol has now significantly gone into the coffers of the three tiers of government. Now all states are fiscally stable and can pay salaries regularly and embark on infrastructure projects. In July, the three tiers shared about N3 trillion, a record, from the federation account. That is a major achievement, since the abolition of petrol price discount and distortions in the foreign exchange regime.
“Nigeria is increasingly moving from a model in which scarce foreign exchange is used to import refined petrol to one in which crude oil, largely sold in Naira, can be processed domestically and supplied to the Nigerian market. That transition creates opportunities for greater energy security, foreign-exchange conservation, industrial development and ultimately a boost to employment generation,” it argued.
The subsidy debate, it said, must therefore be grounded in the realities of today’s market rather than treated as though Nigeria’s petroleum sector has remained unchanged.
The former petrol price discount arrangement, it pointed out, was not simply government handing out a harmless discount.
“It involved the public sector absorbing the difference between regulated prices and the actual cost of supplying petrol, with substantial fiscal consequences.
“At various points, the government financed or accommodated the burden through borrowing and other public-sector financing arrangements. Millions of barrels of crude oil had previously
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