Nigeria: Atiku's Subsidy Proposal Designed to Make Petrol Affordable - Okonkwo

What the report says

Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman for former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s 2027 presidential campaign, says Atiku’s plan to restore petrol subsidy is meant to lower fuel prices for ordinary Nigerians, not revive the old subsidy system. The comments, reported by Vanguard and distributed by AllAfrica, were made on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics from Abuja. Okonkwo said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had misread the proposal and that the policy should be understood as an affordability plan tied to local refining capacity.

According to the report, Atiku, the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, said earlier in the week that he would restore petrol subsidy if elected in 2027. That announcement drew immediate criticism because Atiku had previously been associated with subsidy removal arguments during the 2023 election campaign. Tinubu responded by calling the idea evidence of weak understanding of governance and the economy, and defended the current subsidy removal as necessary to reduce a heavy burden on the public finances.

Okonkwo argued that the proposed approach depends on making crude oil available to domestic refineries at a fair price so they can produce fuel more cheaply. He said the old subsidy era was linked to imported petrol, weak refining capacity and alleged manipulation of import claims, while insisting Atiku does not intend to return to that model. The exchange matters because fuel prices and subsidy policy remain central issues in Nigerian politics, public spending and consumer costs.