The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar said President Bola Tinubu’s proposed 30-day fuel discount is a panic measure, which will not repair the damage his fuel subsidy removal will not cure.
Atiku in a statement by Director, Strategic Communication of ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, said the Tinubu administration’s attempt to dangle a fuel subsidy as bait for Nigerians was reckless, disgraceful and scandalous.
He said the same government that watched Nigerians endure excruciating hardship without offering meaningful relief, is offering a temporary discount now that election is drawing closer, and rejected what he described as “calendar-scheduled, election-laced subsidy package.”
The former Vice President told Tinubu that Nigerians are not fools to be offered a month of discounted fuel after years of punishing prices, and he expected them to forget the hardship when the discount expires.
According to him, the proposed 30-day discount was not an economic plan but a political bandage on a wound the government had helped create.
“What happens on Day 31? Nigerians wake up to the same brutal prices, the same punishing transport fares and the same rising cost of food.
“The government cannot manufacture relief for one month and expect Nigerians to applaud while the hardship remains,” he said.
The ADC presidential noted that the offer is limited to only NNPC stations, and said Tinubu government has yet to state how much motorists would save per litre or guarantee that any savings for transport operators would be passed on to passengers through lower fares.
Atiku stated that the administration’s sudden reversal was itself an admission of guilt over the hardship Nigerians have endured.
“It also exposed the weakness of the government’s repeated claims that meaningful relief was impossible,” he added.
He said the volte-face proves that the production-support proposal he advanced is workable, achievable and not complicated.
“The Tinubu government and its spin doctors have tried to make it sound impossible, yet they are now reaching for a temporary subsidy-style intervention because the pain has become impossible to ignore,” Atiku said.
He reiterated his proposal for capped and budgeted production support tied to fuel refined in Nigeria, with safeguards to ensure that the benefit reaches consumers and supports local refining.
“Nigerians need lasting relief, not a countdown to the return of hardship.
“Tinubu’s government cannot spend years telling Nigerians to endure, then offer 30 days of relief and call it a solution,” he said.
