Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed the Presidency’s claim that its targeted subsidy intervention proposal will cost N22 trillion, describing it as “arithmetic hooliganism” designed to justify continued difficulties.
In a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the latest petrol price increases, despite the decline in crude oil prices, demonstrated that President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms had become “a conveyor belt transferring the pain of government policy directly to Nigerian households”.
“The latest trick is the claim that Atiku’s selective intervention will cost £22 billion. That figure is not Atiku’s policy. It is Villa arithmetic built on Villa assumptions.
“They selected their own pump price, subsidy rate and financing model, multiplied their assumptions and then presented the result as Atiku’s bill. That is not economic analysis. It is arithmetic vandalism.”
Atiku clarified that he had never proposed a return to the opaque import subsidy regime.
“Atiku has never proposed an unlimited resurrection of the import subsidy business. His proposal is targeted, limited, appropriate, transparent and independently audited, linked to domestic production and a measurable benefit to the consumer,” he said.
‘Take into account first N30trn under Tinubu’
The ADC candidate reproached the Presidency for having prepared figures for an opposition policy and for failing to reconcile the income of the current government.
“The irony is particularly striking because while the Presidency is rushing to fabricate a £22 trillion bill for an opposition politician, it has yet to provide the detailed public reconciliation it has demanded for almost £30 trillion in Federation income, deductions, savings and transfers identified from figures released by the FAAC,” Atiku said.
It said its earlier analysis put the cumulative amount requiring explanation at almost N30 trillion as of July 2026.
“If Aso Rock suddenly discovers a calculator, Nigerians would like it to apply to the Federation Account as well. Before inventing trillions for Atiku, clearly account for the trillions collected, deducted, saved and transferred under Tinubu,” he said.
“The question remains painfully simple: with substantially increased government revenues, why are ordinary Nigerians still being crushed by the costs of food, transport and energy? Where is the prosperity that supposedly followed the removal of subsidies?”
“Nigerians pay real bills, not imaginary ones”
Atiku cited a report that MRS increased gasoline from ₦1,205 to ₦1,310 per liter, and other marketers sold between ₦1,315 and over ₦1,400, even as crude oil prices declined from about $92 to $87.31 per barrel. He warned that prices could rise to as much as £1,500 a litre.
“At £1,500 a litre, 20 liters would cost £30,000. That’s not an abstract figure on an economist’s spreadsheet. It’s money disappearing from a family’s food allowance,” he said.
He charted how fuel costs cascade into food prices:
“The tomato farmer in Plateau pays more to transport his products. The truck driver adds his fuel cost. The Mile 12 merchant adds transportation. The woman at the neighborhood market adds hers. When a mother buys tomatoes to stew, she is paying for every kilometer that Tinubu made more expensive.
“The same mathematics follows the bread in the bakery, the garri in the farm, a child in a school bus and a worker in a commercial vehicle. The barber who operates a generator and the vulcanizer who keeps his shop open also feel it. Gasoline enters the Nigerian pocket long before the Nigerian enters a service station.”
Failures at the time of Tinubu’s trip to Europe
Atiku also criticized the timing of the three-week vacation announced by President Tinubu in Europe, which the Presidency said began on August 30, starting in London.
“The president has a constitutional right to annual leave. But leadership also has optics, opportunity and responsibility. At the same time that oil prices are rising, families are struggling to feed themselves, businesses are struggling with higher energy costs and insecurity remains a daily fear, Nigerians are watching their president leave for three weeks in Europe,” he said.
“Millions of Nigerians can no longer afford ordinary travel within their own country…Yet the man presiding over this cost of living crisis can still leave Abuja for London while Nigerians remain trapped at home by the economy he created.
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“That is the painful symbolism of Tinubu’s Nigeria: the president can afford to leave; millions of Nigerians can barely afford to move.”
“Make Nigeria affordable again”
Atiku said his economic alternative prioritized household purchasing power over government revenue figures.
“The discussion is not between reform and irresponsibility. It is between a reform that transfers every economic impact to the citizen and an alternative that asks how Nigeria’s resources can reduce production costs, transportation costs and the cost of living without restoring the corruption of the past,” he said.
“You can’t make transportation more expensive, make food more expensive, make energy more expensive and then distribute rice as proof that your economic policy works. You can’t break a man’s leg and demand applause because he brought him a crutch.
“The £22 billion scarecrow will not reduce a bus fare or put an extra measure of garri on a family’s plate. Nigerians do not live inside the Presidency’s calculator. They live in markets, buses, farms, workshops and kitchens where Tinubu’s policies confront them every day.
“A country in trouble cannot be governed like a tourist itinerary. Tinubu made Nigeria affordable. Atiku will make Nigeria affordable again.”
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