The Presidency has criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his opposition to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Retail’s 30-day petrol discount, defending the initiative as a temporary measure to cushion the impact of global oil price volatility....
The Presidency has criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his opposition to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Retail’s 30-day petrol discount, defending the initiative as a temporary measure to cushion the impact of global oil price volatility.
In a statement titled “Atiku’s Demagoguery in the Face of Tinubu’s Logical Policies”, President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, accused the former vice president of exploiting Nigerians’ economic difficulties for political gain.
Dare said Atiku’s description of the discount as a “panic-driven gimmick” demonstrated what he called a lack of understanding of global energy markets, fiscal policy and Nigeria’s crude oil production arrangements.
He argued that the government’s intervention was a market-smoothing measure rather than a return to the fuel subsidy regime abolished by Tinubu in May 2023.
The NNPC Retail discount was initially introduced to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence anniversary before the company extended the offer for another 30 days.
According to the Presidency, NNPC Retail’s decision to sell petrol at landing cost during the period would allow it to absorb short-term market volatility through its corporate balance sheet rather than rely on direct government subsidies.
Dare also defended an interim N1,350-per-litre ceiling on ex-gantry costs, describing it as a mechanism to moderate sudden price increases and limit their impact on transport fares.
He said the framework would be reviewed monthly through cost audits, with refiners and importers absorbing short-term increases above the ceiling and recovering the costs when market conditions improved.
Presidency Rejects Atiku’s Production Subsidy Proposal
The Presidency also faulted Atiku’s proposal for a production subsidy, arguing that Nigeria lacked sufficient unencumbered crude oil volumes to support such an arrangement without undermining government revenue and existing contractual obligations.
Dare cited Nigeria’s estimated crude oil production of 1.8 million barrels per day, saying joint venture agreements, production-sharing contracts, royalties and profit-oil arrangements significantly reduced the volume available to the government.
He claimed that fewer than 700,000 barrels per day remained as unencumbered crude oil after accounting for these obligations.
The presidential aide argued that domestic refineries, including the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, required more crude oil than the government could freely allocate without affecting existing supply commitments or national revenue.
He warned that a production subsidy unsupported by sufficient crude oil volumes could recreate the opacity, fraudulent practices and financial losses associated with the former fuel subsidy system.
“ To propose a blanket ‘targeted production subsidy’ on crude without the physical, unencumbered volume to back it up is pure economic illiteracy,” Dare said.
He further argued that Atiku’s proposal risked reviving an unsustainable subsidy regime under a different name.
Tinubu’s Government Lists Economic Measures
Defending the administration’s economic record, Dare said the government had introduced several measures to reduce energy costs, improve domestic refining and cushion the impact of global market disruptions.
These include expanding compressed natural gas infrastructure, promoting naira-for-crude arrangements for domestic refiners and establishing a strategic energy reserve to respond to supply disruptions.
He said compressed natural gas could provide commercial transport operators with a cheaper alternative to petrol, while local refining arrangements could reduce exposure to foreign exchange volatility.
The Presidency also cited the government’s tax reforms, social support programmes and infrastructure projects, including the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, as part of its broader economic strategy.
Dare maintained that the removal of petrol subsidies and the unification of the foreign exchange market were necessary measures to address longstanding structural weaknesses in the economy.
He said the reforms had improved federal allocations to states and local governments through the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), while eliminating the multi-day fuel queues that previously plagued the country.
The presidential aide also pointed to cash transfers for vulnerable households, subsidised credit for small businesses and wage support for civil servants as measures intended to ease the burden of economic reforms.
Presidency Accuses Opposition of Political Opportunism
Dare accused Atiku of using public frustration over rising living costs to advance his political ambitions ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He argued that Nigeria’s economic challenges required long-term structural solutions rather than what he described as quick fixes that could undermine fiscal stability.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has chosen the hard, courageous, and necessary path,” he said, defending the combination of market deregulation, temporary price-smoothing measures, strategic reserves and alternative energy investments.
The Presidency maintained that the government’s policies were designed to achieve long-term economic stability, insisting that restoring broad-based fuel subsidies would risk reversing the gains of its reforms.