Fuel Subsidy: “You Líed To Nigerians”, Atiku Slams Tinubu As Payment Hits N5.4trn

Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for lying to Nigerians over the fuel subsidy.

Atiku spoke few hours after the Tinubu’s administration admitted that it has started paying fuel subsidy to petroleum marketers.

Over N5 trillion has been allocated for that purpose in the 2024 Budget, according to Wale Edun the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.

Recall that President Tinubu had during his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023 affirmed that “fuel subsidy is gone”.

Also recently, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri stated that the federal government has stopped the payment of fuel subsidy.

The conflicting statements from the administration have not stopped worrying Nigerians who insist that the government has not been transparent to Nigerians over the issue.

This, according to those who hold this view, followed the fact that Nigerians have been made to pay more for petrol since last year after President Tinubu said the government would no longer subsidize the product, which today now sells for over N700 per litre from N230 per litre when the government said the regime ended on May 29.

Not a few Nigerians insist that they have been made to suffer for nothing after the president stated that the removal of fuel subsidy is part of the sacrifice that Nigerians must pay to move the economy forward.

The removal has led to consequential effects on the prices of essential commodities, driving inflation to close to 40 percent within a year, analyst said.

Reacting on his X handle, Abubakar stated that he’s shocked that the administration is still paying humungous amount on fuel subsidy having earlier said it has ended the regime.

The former PDP presidential hopeful said President Tinubu has deceived Nigerians, adding that Nigerians deserve better from the government in terms of transparency.

According to Atiku, “President Bola Tinubu, at his inauguration on May 29, 2023, announced the abolishment of the subsidy on PMS, popularly known as fuel. Ever since it has been a bragging right of Tinubu and officials of his administration. I had in my statement reviewing the one year of the Bola Tinubu administration urged the government to come clean on the actual position of the subsidy policy.

“If the subsidy regime had been characterised by opaqueness, what would we say of a situation where the subsidy is still being paid under the cover without Nigerians in the know? Like millions of Nigerians, I was shocked to learn through media reports that the “government is still supporting downstream consumption.”

“Now we know that expenditure on fuel subsidy may reach N5.4 trillion in 2024, compared to the N3.6 trillion spent in 2023, the same year that Tinubu claimed to have abolished fuel subsidy, I wish to restate that Nigeria is not working, and what we have had in a little over a year is a cocktail of trial-and-error economic policies. Paying subsidies and lying about it is nothing to brag about. Nigerians deserve better than this deception.”