Victor Ezeja
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has called on Nigeria’s National Assembly to investigate the alleged secret payment of petrol subsidy by the Bola Tinubu government.
A few months after President Tinubu declared that “subsidy is gone”, there have been reports of alleged secret payments to subsidise the cost of petrol. Some analysts have at some points, asserted that if there was no form of government intervention, the price of a litre of petrol should have risen beyond N1,000. However, the presidency has repeatedly denied that no form of subsidy exists.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelIn a statement on Wednesday, Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of diverting public funds through petrol subsidy, hence the refusal of the government to reveal how much is being spent on subsidy.
The former vice president of Nigeria charged Tinubu’s government to come clean on the issue of subsidy payment, claiming that the return of the subsidy regime through the backdoor was one of the reasons the oil sector had not recorded any significant investments one year after the Tinubu took over.
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“Tinubu has brought the shady nature of running Lagos to the federal level,” Atiku stated. “He claims subsidy is gone but his Special Adviser on Energy, Olu Verheijen, says they are intervening from time to time while his Finance Minister, Wale Edun, described subsidy removal as an ‘ongoing process’. A document authored by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy revealing how much subsidy is being paid is now being disowned by the very authors of the document.
“Both the World Bank and the IMF have revealed in separate reports that Nigeria is still paying petrol subsidies, but the Tinubu government refuses to come clean. Even a senior member of the APC had revealed that the subsidy was beyond paid.
“For a man who claims to be on a mission to attract foreign direct investment, it is ironic that he cannot see that his policy flip-flops and lies are capable of dissuading investors.
“He must come clean on this subsidy issue since he doubles as petroleum minister. The Tinubu administration should be courageous enough to own their policies and outcome with their full chest and responsible enough to be accountable for their actions to Nigerians.”
He further claimed that “This denial lends credence that money meant for the Federation Account, which ought to be shared to states and local governments, is being diverted without any form of accountability whatsoever.”
Atiku also alluded to a report that expenditure on fuel subsidy may reach N5.4 trillion in 2024, noting that it is worisome that the figure would surpass the N3.6 trillion spent in 2023 when Tinubu became the president.
He reiterated his earlier comment while reviewing Tinubu administration’s one year in office saying: “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,” he added.
He said the National Assembly “needs to be alive to its responsibilities, especially in the area of oversight. Posterity will not be kind to members of the National Assembly if they continue to look the other way, while daylight robbery is taking place.”
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
