President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Dr Sunday Dare, has criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his comments on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Retail’s 30-day petrol price discount and the Federal Government’s proposed price modulation framework. Dare, in a statement issued on…...
President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Dr Sunday Dare, has criticised former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his comments on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) Retail’s 30-day petrol price discount and the Federal Government’s proposed price modulation framework.
Dare, in a statement issued on Sunday, described Atiku’s criticism as “a seminal example of shallow, election-laced demagoguery”, arguing that the former vice president had misrepresented the administration’s approach to managing rising fuel prices.
He said Atiku’s position failed to account for global energy market realities and the economic considerations surrounding the government’s interventions.
“Calling a calibrated, multi-layered economic stabilisation strategy a ‘panic-driven gimmick’ reveals more than partisan bitterness; it exposes a profound, structural ignorance of global energy dynamics, fiscal mechanics, and the plain arithmetic of modern Nigeria,” Dare stated.
The presidential aide said the NNPC Retail discount was initially introduced to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence anniversary and was subsequently extended for another 30 days.
He argued that the arrangement was not a return to fuel subsidy but a temporary measure intended to moderate the impact of fluctuations in global crude oil prices.
“Atiku’s attempt to frame NNPC Retail’s decision to forgo its profit margin as a ‘return to the fuel subsidy’ is a deliberate mischaracterisation designed to mislead the public and incite public dissatisfaction,” he said.
Dare explained that the government’s approach involved NNPC Retail absorbing short-term market volatility rather than restoring the previous subsidy system.
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“When NNPC Retail agrees to sell fuel at landing cost for 30 days during an unprecedented global crude price spike, it is not writing checks to opaque import cartels. It is leveraging its corporate balance sheet to absorb short-term global volatility, backed directly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he stated.
He also defended the proposed interim N1,350-per-litre ceiling on ex-gantry costs, describing it as a mechanism to cushion the effect of sudden price increases rather than an attempt to impose permanent price controls.
According to Dare, the framework would allow refiners and importers to absorb costs above the ceiling temporarily and recover them when global crude prices decline or exchange rates adjust.
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He argued that the arrangement could help limit sudden increases in commercial transport fares, which often remain high even after fuel prices fall.
The presidential aide also rejected Atiku’s proposal for a production subsidy, arguing that Nigeria’s crude oil production arrangements limited the volume available for unrestricted government allocation.
Citing figures attributed to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, Dare said Nigeria produced about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil daily but had fewer than 700,000 barrels per day of unencumbered “free crude” after accounting for contractual and statutory obligations.
He said domestic refiners, including the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, required additional crude supplies beyond the volumes the government could freely allocate.
“To propose a blanket ‘targeted production subsidy’ on crude without the physical, unencumbered volume to back it up is pure economic illiteracy. It invites the very opacity, fraudulent round-tripping, and fiscal haemorrhage that crippled Nigeria for decades under the old subsidy regime,” Dare stated.
He further argued that the administration’s economic reforms, including the removal of petrol subsidy and unification of the foreign exchange market, had helped increase government revenues and improve fiscal allocations to states and local governments.
Dare said the government was also pursuing measures to strengthen energy security and reduce transportation costs, including expanding compressed natural gas infrastructure, supporting domestic refining through naira-for-crude arrangements and establishing a strategic energy reserve.
He added that the administration had introduced direct cash transfers for vulnerable households, credit support for small businesses and wage assistance for civil servants.
The presidential aide maintained that the government’s policies were intended to address structural problems in the economy rather than rely on temporary relief measures.
He said, “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration has chosen the hard, courageous, and necessary path. By coupling market deregulation with targeted price-smoothing mechanisms, strategic reserves, rapid CNG rollout, and disciplined fiscal management, the administration is laying a permanent foundation for sustainable prosperity.”
Dare concluded by faulting Atiku’s criticism of the administration’s economic policies, arguing that long-standing economic challenges could not be resolved through short-term promises.
“The Nigerian electorate is far too sophisticated to trade long-term national economic security for Atiku’s shallow, short-term demagoguery,” he stated.