Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has said he will not resurrect the old fuel subsidy regime in Nigeria if elected president in the 2027 general election.
He disclosed this in a statement by his media team on
Wednesday, explaining how he would cut the price of petrol.
In a recent interview, Atiku had backed the return of fuel
subsidy in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.
In a fresh detail on Wednesday, Atiku explained that his
administration, if elected, would replace Nigeria’s old import-subsidy
architecture with a targeted, capped, transparently budgeted and independently
audited production subsidy designed to lower energy costs while accelerating
domestic refining.
“My proposal is not to resurrect the old subsidy regime. We
will move subsidy from importation to production, from middlemen to Nigerian
refineries, and from unverifiable claims to verifiable barrels.
“The principle is simple: the subsidy will follow the
barrel,” he stated.
According to him, supplying crude below its
market-equivalent value represents a real opportunity cost to the Federation.
“The cost will be known. The ceiling will be known. The
beneficiaries will be known. And, most importantly, the benefit delivered to
Nigerians will be measurable.
“We will determine what Nigeria can afford before we
subsidise. We will not subsidise first and discover the bill afterwards,” he
stated.
He noted that his model for fuel subsidy would prevent
refinery owners from pocketing the benefit of preferential crude without
passing it on to consumers.
“No refinery would receive subsidised crude without a
corresponding, independently verified quantity of petroleum products being
supplied to the Nigerian market under a transparent pricing formula reflecting
the benefit of the preferential crude price.
“Crude allocation, refinery intake, production yields,
inventories and domestic deliveries would be reconciled, ensuring that every
subsidised barrel can be followed from allocation through refining to the
Nigerian consumer.
“No phantom cargoes. No fictitious imports. No unverifiable
under-recoveries. No retrospective claims.
“If you receive subsidised Nigerian crude, you must refine
it in Nigeria, supply the agreed products to Nigerians and pass the benefit to
Nigerians. Otherwise, you do not qualify,” he stated.
Recall that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu removed the fuel
subsidy in May 2023, which led to a sharp increase in petrol prices.
The Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, said on Tuesday that
the government had received N15.8 trillion in fuel subsidy savings but spent
N30.64 trillion on incremental expenditures from June 2023 to December 2025.
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