Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for the 2027 presidential campaign of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, says President Bola Tinubu misconstrued the petrol subsidy policy recently proposed by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate.
The actor-turned-politician spoke on Channels Television’s
Sunday Politics programme, where he dismissed insinuations that Atiku is
planning to return Nigeria to the “corruption-ridden” subsidy era.
On Wednesday, Atiku said he would restore the petrol subsidy
if elected president in 2027.
Atiku, who spoke in Hausa during an interview with an ADC
media group, said the President Tinubu administration has failed to account for
the funds saved from the removal of the petrol subsidy.
The comment sparked widespread outrage on social media, with
critics saying the remark contrasted with the policy manifesto Atiku proposed
in the run-up to the 2023 elections, when he reportedly vowed to remove the
subsidy on petrol if elected.
Reacting, Tinubu said Atiku’s proposal shows “serious
ignorance of governance and economy”, noting that before he assumed office,
some states struggled to pay salaries and pensions.
However, Okonkwo condemned Tinubu’s remarks, saying the
former vice-president’s subsidy removal proposal is a well-thought-out plan to
make petrol affordable for Nigerians.
“The whole idea of the Atiku plan is affordability of fuel
to the ordinary Nigerian,” he said.
“It is ignorance of Tinubu to say that Atiku wants to go
back to the subsidy of the old. If ignorance should have another name, that
name would have been called Tinubu.”
Okonkwo referenced the ongoing controversy over the alleged
fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) under the
current administration as evidence of what he described as the president’s
“ignorance”.
“Tinubu is a man who drafted a budget and, in his own
budget, he made provision for an agency that he said is fake, which, under his
nose, is even ignorant of the agencies that he has,” Okonkwo said.
“If ignorance was to be a name, Tinubu is the president.”
‘ATIKU ISN’T GOING BACK TO THE WAY SUBSIDY OF THE OLD
OPERATED’
He argued that there would have been no need for petrol
subsidy in Nigeria in the first place if successive governments had saturated
the system with adequate fuel supply, ensuring there was no monopoly.
“This is what Atiku is saying. And I’m going into the Atiku
plan, which we call Atiku fuel affordability plan (AFAP),” Okonkwo said.
According to him, Atiku’s proposal does not seek a return to
the old subsidy regime, which he said was characterised by fuel imports and
corruption.
“This was the way the subsidy of the old operated. They were
importing 100 percent of the fuel,” he said.
“We didn’t have any refinery. Atiku and Obasanjo sold the
refineries off, saying the government, from what they have experienced, cannot
handle the refineries.
“But they reversed the policy. So, they were importing 100
percent of the fuel. And in the importation, when they import 40 million
litres, they will say it’s 60 million litres; it is inflated. Nigerians will be
paying for 20 million litres.
“And if they imported it at $1, they would say it’s $2. So,
you will be paying an extra $1. Corruption. And that was how subsidy became
synonymous with corruption. Atiku is not going back to that and cannot even go
back to that.”
‘OUR SUFFERING NOT CAUSED BY DEMAND-PULL INFLATION’
Okonkwo said the return of local refineries means Atiku’s
plan would instead focus on making petrol affordable by ensuring the facilities
have access to crude oil at a fair price.
According to him, the ADC presidential candidate believes
the Tinubu administration has failed to make petrol affordable despite the
operation of local refineries.
“He said, I will supply the needed crude to our local
refineries at a price that will be fair enough for them to use to produce the
fuel at a reduced and affordable price to Nigerians,” Okonkwo said.
He also accused the current administration of failing to
supply adequate crude oil to the Dangote Refinery, saying this has contributed
to refinery’s high production cost.
“I once said that even if Dangote Refinery came into
existence, they will not give us fuel at a cheap rate in Tinubu’s regime,”
Okonkwo said.
“What we are suffering today is not demand-pull inflation.
It’s cost-of-production-induced inflation, meaning even if the demand is zero,
the price will still be high because the cost of production is very high.
“Dangote is importing the crude oil that it is using to
produce oil.”
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