Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s promise to restore petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027 has triggered a fresh confrontation with the presidency, with the federal government challenging him to explain how the policy would be financed while disputing his claims over the financial gains from subsidy removal.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, said he would restore petrol subsidy if elected, arguing that Nigerians had not seen the benefits they were promised when the Bola Tinubu administration removed the subsidy in 2023.
The former vice-president has also demanded an account of about N30 trillion in Federation revenues, deductions, savings and transfers that he says require reconciliation, including funds arising from the removal of petrol and energy subsidies.
Atiku asked the federal government to publish a detailed ledger showing what happened to the financial gains from the reforms.
The demand came as the government released its own account of the reforms.
Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele said on Wednesday that the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign-exchange market generated N15.8 trillion in additional resources for the Federation between June 2023 and December 2025.
Oyedele said the N15.8 trillion represented gains from both reforms, rather than petrol subsidy savings alone. He also disclosed that an additional N11.9 trillion was raised through borrowing, bringing total additional resources to about N20.4 trillion during the period.
It was against that backdrop that Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, responded to Atiku's subsidy proposal in a statement issued on Thursday.
Onanuga described the proposal as “retrogressive” and accused Atiku of reversing his previous position on subsidy removal in pursuit of political power.
The presidential aide, however, acknowledged Atiku’s right to propose a different economic policy, saying the former vice-president should provide Nigerians with the fiscal and legal details of his plan.
“Political promises must be backed by fiscal arithmetic,” Onanuga said.
He asked Atiku to state how much the proposed subsidy would cost annually, what revenue source would finance it, whether the government would borrow to fund it, and whether the National Assembly would have to amend existing petroleum-sector legislation.
For the presidency, restoring the old regime would create a new fiscal burden and potentially undermine the transformation of Nigeria’s petroleum industry.
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