‘You’re Ignoramus if You Think Nigerians’ Suffering Is Economic Policy’—Atiku Fires Back At Tinubu

The Presidential candidate of the African Democratic  Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar has lashed out at President Bola Tinubu over his administration’s petroleum subsidy policy, accusing the president of inflicting economic hardship on Nigerians while retaining what he described as opaque subsidy-related costs in the oil sector.

The latest exchange followed  President Tinubu’s criticism of Atiku’s proposed petroleum-sector intervention, which the Presidency dismissed as economically unsound during the launch of his 2027 re-election campaign.

Responding in a statement issued on Friday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Tinubu had no moral authority to accuse anyone of economic ignorance after overseeing policies that, according to him, have worsened Nigerians’ living conditions.

“There is an almost comical audacity in Tinubu calling anyone economically ignorant after presiding over an economy where government revenues have ballooned while citizens’ purchasing power has collapsed,” Shaibu said.

He described the Tinubu administration’s reforms as “economic arson followed by propaganda about the ashes.”

“If economic ignorance had a presidential seal, Tinubu and his family would be its official logo. Here is an administration that detonated simultaneous fuel-price, exchange-rate and cost-of-living shocks across a fragile economy, watched millions become poorer, and now struts around Abuja demanding applause for the wreckage,” the statement read.

Atiku argued that although allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) have increased under Tinubu’s administration, the benefits have not translated into improved welfare for ordinary Nigerians.

“Hungry Nigerians cannot boil FAAC figures for dinner. Businesses cannot power factories with presidential speeches, workers cannot pay transport fares with macroeconomic grammar, and parents cannot settle school fees with statistics manufactured for State House applause,” he said.

The former vice president maintained that an economy should be judged by improvements in citizens’ lives rather than rising government revenues.

“A government that grows richer while its citizens grow poorer is not reforming an economy. It is extracting from its people,” he added.

Atiku faulted Tinubu’s announcement of fuel subsidy removal in May 2023, saying it was implemented without a credible transition plan or measures to cushion its impact.

“Apparently fresh from a bowl of amala, Tinubu mounted the podium at Eagle Square and casually declared that ‘subsidy is gone’ without a credible transition plan or adequate protection against the inflationary consequences.

“Those three words were not economic policy. They were economic vandalism by presidential fiat.”

According to him, the policy triggered a sharp rise in petrol prices, transportation costs, food inflation and a steep depreciation of the naira, leaving businesses and households struggling.

He rejected claims that his current proposal amounts to a reversal of his previous position on subsidy removal.

“Atiku is not proposing the resurrection of the corrupt, open-ended subsidy bazaar. He proposes a targeted, capped, budgeted, time-bound and independently audited production-support mechanism tied to domestic production and protected against arbitrage.

“The difference is simple: Tinubu pronounced first and searched for a plan afterwards. Atiku studied the consequences and produced a solution.”

The former vice president also questioned the government’s claim that fuel subsidy had been eliminated, citing figures he said were contained in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s audited accounts.

According to Atiku, the accounts reportedly contain about ₦17.5 trillion in energy security costs and petroleum under-recoveries, including ₦7.13 trillion classified as energy security costs and ₦8.67 trillion in under-recoveries.

“So what exactly did Tinubu remove?” he asked.

“If subsidy is dead, why are under-recoveries alive? If corruption were eliminated, why has opacity survived?

“Tinubu has given Nigerians the worst of both worlds: he removed the relief but retained the opaque costs. Nigerians got the pain; government kept the bill.”

Atiku also criticised Tinubu’s argument that subsidy removal has enabled states to receive larger FAAC allocations and pay salaries more consistently.

“You do not build a federation by impoverishing citizens so that Abuja can send bigger cheques to governors. That is robbing households to subsidise governments,” he said.

He argued that the policy has created a dependency culture among state governments rather than encouraging economic productivity and investment.

“States should develop competitive economies, attract investment, exploit their comparative advantages, broaden their productive tax bases and create wealth. Instead, Tinubu is deepening an Abuja dependency economy where governors can wait every month for increasingly fat allocations from the centre.

The former vice president further urged the Presidency to respond to questions surrounding public finances, including what he described as about ₦30 trillion in Federation Account revenues, deductions, savings and transfers that require reconciliation.

He also called for an explanation of the ₦12.8 trillion Service-Wide Vote contained in the proposed 2026 budget.

“You cannot scream ‘hoax’ at a proposal designed to ease hardship and suddenly become deaf and dumb when confronted with questions of fiscal opacity, alleged budget padding and questionable expenditure,” Atiku said.

“If Tinubu can mobilise an army of propagandists to attack Atiku within hours, surely he can find one accountant to explain his books.”

Concluding the statement, Atiku insisted that Tinubu’s economic reforms have enriched government coffers at the expense of citizens.

“Economic reform is not measured by how fat government accounts become while citizens grow poorer. An economy exists to serve human beings, not family and friends.

“The real ignorance is believing suffering is economic policy. Tinubu removed the subsidy from Nigerians’ pockets, but he is yet to remove the questions from his books.

“Nigerians have paid enough for Tinubunomics. They should not be sentenced to another four years of the bitter experiment,” Atiku said.