Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, has lambasted former Vice-President Atiku, as a confused, voodoo economist, who would impress voters just because he wanted to become president.
Wike made the remarks on Thursday at an inspection of ongoing infrastructure projects in the FCT in relation to Atiku’s remarks that he would remove fuel subsidy within his first 100 days in office, if he became the President.
The FCT minister rebuked the candidate of the ADC in next year’s presidential election as an inconsistent politician, seeking to reverse a policy he previously condemned.
“Atiku, who is confused, who acts like a voodoo economist, will say anything just to be president. This was a man in 2022 who said he was going to remove the fuel subsidy because it was a fraud.
“Will Atiku, as President (which he will never be) pay subsidy on fuel produced by Dangote Refinery? Now, in 2026, he says he is not going to remove the fuel subsidy. Is he going back to the fraud, which he had alleged that fuel subsidy was?”, he said.
Wike, who projected an easy run for Tinubu in the 2027 elections, stressed that political opposition was not defined merely by political parties fielding candidates, but by a cohesive front committed to offering genuine alternatives.
“They have only one leading candidate, and that’s Bola Tinubu. I have told people this would be the easiest election.
“I say so because we have no opposition that wants to wrestle power from the government. No opposition is united to say, ‘Really, we want to remove this government in power,” he said.
The former governor of Rivers State accused the former vice president of having a tendency of arbitrarily changing his views to suit prevailing political circumstances.
“Leadership is not you coming out, you say one thing now in the morning, in the afternoon you say a different thing, in the night you are talking of a different thing. That is not it,” he said.
He accused Atiku of living in the past in relation to the implementation of the fuel subsidy regime, particularly with the commercialisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the emergence of the Dangote Refinery.
He flayed Atiku of failing to come to terms that the NNPC is now fully commercialised with the Petroleum Industry Act and has transformed into a limited liability company (NNPC Limited), and no longer the sole importer or producer of fuel.
“It shows that he (Atiku) is confused, having insisted in the past that he will remove subsidy, which he described as a fraud. Does it now mean that he will restore what he said was a fraud?”
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