{"id":3724,"date":"2026-08-30T21:23:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T21:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=3724"},"modified":"2026-08-30T22:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T22:00:25","slug":"atikus-subsidy-push-and-echoes-of-desperation-by-tunde-rahman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=3724","title":{"rendered":"Atiku&#8217;s subsidy push and echoes of desperation, by Tunde Rahman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>*<strong><em>Nigerian former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar&#8217;s new policy shift towards bringing back fuel subsidy suggests the Federal Government must pay the difference between cost and pump price, returning economy to borrowing, to fund fuel consumption<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tunde Rahman<\/p>\n<p>Nigerian former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar&#8217;s new policy shift towards bringing back the fuel subsidy is a welcome return to proper political debate and the path of rectitude.<\/p>\n<p>It contrasts sharply with his futile search for forged certificates and drug indictments in the run-up to the 2023 General Elections and his latest goof about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s age.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"1qb1jQiRuC\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=3739\">Energy Solutions: NASENI expands economic opportunities, empowers 1,000 Lagos residents via NSEP<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cEnergy Solutions: NASENI expands economic opportunities, empowers 1,000 Lagos residents via NSEP\u201d \u2014 Consumer Experience Is A Top Priority\" src=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=3739&amp;embed=true#?secret=cT7XC4KCv9#?secret=1qb1jQiRuC\" data-secret=\"1qb1jQiRuC\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Alhaji Atiku stated, last week, that if elected in 2027, he would \u201cbring back fuel subsidy\u201d by subsidising fuel production.<\/p>\n<p>He even repudiated his media aide who tried to embellish the proposal, not meaning to call it what it truly is \u2013 reinstating the ill-conceived fuel subsidy scheme.<\/p>\n<p>That alone is a telling indicator of what his inner circle thinks of his populist gambit.<\/p>\n<p>Atiku&#8217;s economic idea may sound compassionate, which is what the ADC candidate really wants to achieve, hoping such will win him enough votes to be the country&#8217;s President in 2027, in his seventh attempt.<\/p>\n<p>But a closer look shows the proposal is a return to the same failed economics that kept Nigeria down for 40 years.<\/p>\n<p>President Tinubu took the difficult decision, in May 2023, to end the fuel subsidy regime.<\/p>\n<p>It was not popular. But it was necessary, indeed expedient.<\/p>\n<p>And three years on, the results prove why turning back the wheels should not even be contemplated.<\/p>\n<p>The old subsidy bled the treasury dry.<\/p>\n<p>From January to May 2023 alone, when the subsidy ended, the Buhari administration spent over N3 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>According to official figures, between 2006 and 2023, Nigeria spent over \u20a615 trillion on fuel subsidy.<\/p>\n<p>The government financed the bill through debts and \u201cWays and Means\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>That is money that should have built schools, roads and bridges, and financed education.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, it subsidised smuggling to neighbouring countries and made a few marketers billionaires overnight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProduction subsidy\u201d, as ex-VP Atiku coined it, is still a subsidy.<\/p>\n<p>If government must pay the difference between cost and pump price, then we are back to borrowing to fund fuel consumption.<\/p>\n<p>We cannot build a $1 trillion economy on that model.<\/p>\n<p>Since the removal of subsidy, we have seen real change.<\/p>\n<p>Deregulation is finally working. Local refining has been substantially enhanced.<\/p>\n<p>The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is now fully on stream.<\/p>\n<p>Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna are now under pressure to produce and compete.<\/p>\n<p>That would never happen, if the government were still paying marketers to import.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign Exchange (Forex) pressure is easing.<\/p>\n<p>We no longer spend $10 billion yearly to import fuel we cannot account for.<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, the government is redirecting resources.<\/p>\n<p>The savings are funding student loans, Creditcorp, CNG buses, wage awards, defence spending, and national and sub-national infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>That is subsidy to the people, not subsidy to the middlemen.<\/p>\n<p>Reversing this now is telling investors: \u201cNigeria\u2019s policy can change with every election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No serious investor will build a refinery or depot under such uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>The alternative is targeted relief, not blanket subsidy.<\/p>\n<p>President Tinubu understands Nigerians are feeling the pain of higher pump prices.<\/p>\n<p>But he also understands that the answer is not a return to 2012.<\/p>\n<p>The Tinubu administration chose a better path: CNG conversion to cut transport costs, Conditional Cash Transfers, and support for local production like the Naira-for-crude policy adopted for Dangote Refinery and other local producers.<\/p>\n<p>These are targeted, scrupulous interventions.<\/p>\n<p>They help the poor directly without creating a black hole in the budget.<\/p>\n<p>These initiatives need to be intensified and further expanded.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, those ends were the primary focus of President Tinubu&#8217;s meeting with the State Governors last Thursday, in Abuja, FCT.<\/p>\n<p>Subsidising production will still distort the market. It is still a pathway to fraud.<\/p>\n<p>And it will still mean less money for education, security, healthcare, and infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Subsidy removal is already delivering. The country&#8217;s GDP growth rate at 3.89% is the biggest economic expansion in recent times.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria&#8217;s annual inflation rate eased for the second month to 15.43 percent July 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Nigerian currency is stabilising against major currencies, the stock market is expanding, and the country&#8217;s foreign reserves have grown exponentially, and currently stand at over $53 billion. This helps build confidence in investors.<\/p>\n<p>If these favourable macroeconomic indicators have not fully impacted the living standards of our people, it is only a matter of time, in my view, given the ongoing positive trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership sometimes entails tough choices. President Tinubu\u2019s removal of subsidy was not a whimsical decision. He did it because it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>Real reform requires courage.<\/p>\n<p>The easy thing is to return to a failed regime, and buy temporary applause as Atiku seeks to do.<\/p>\n<p>That would be sheer populism.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria tried subsidy for four decades, and we ended up importing fuel while exporting crude.<\/p>\n<p>We tried it, and it led to a debt pile-up. We tried it, and our refineries collapsed.<\/p>\n<p>2027 should not be about going back to fuel subsidy as Atiku is canvassing.<\/p>\n<p>It should be about staying the course until local refining, competition, and CNG fully drive prices down.<\/p>\n<p>We respect Alhaji Atiku\u2019s right to propose alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>But Nigerians must ask: do we want relief today that creates crisis tomorrow, or do we endure a little longer to build a Nigeria that works without fraud and waste?<\/p>\n<p>President Tinubu chose reform over rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p>He chose a promising future over a decadent past. Returning to subsidy is not progress. It is a U-turn Nigeria cannot afford.<\/p>\n<p><em>*Rahman is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media and Special Duties.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*Nigerian former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar&#8217;s new policy shift towards bringing back fuel subsidy suggests the Federal Government must pay the difference between cost and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Nigerian Former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,20,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-highlights","category-infoeducation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Atiku-Abubakar-1cc.png",672,365,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Atiku-Abubakar-1cc-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Atiku-Abubakar-1cc-300x163.png",300,163,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Atiku-Abubakar-1cc.png",672,365,false],"large":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Atiku-Abubakar-1cc.png",672,365,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Atiku-Abubakar-1cc.png",672,365,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Atiku-Abubakar-1cc.png",672,365,false]},"author_info":{"info":["ConsumerConnect"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=14\" rel=\"category\">Columns<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=20\" rel=\"category\">Highlights<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=3\" rel=\"category\">InfoEducation<\/a>","tag_info":"InfoEducation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3724"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3758,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions\/3758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}