Atiku accuses Tinubu of masking fuel subsidy through tax breaks to oil firms

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Tinubu's assertion that fuel subsidies have been eliminated, arguing instead that the government has merely redirected support toward major petroleum operators. In statements released through his communications office, Atiku contended that while the administration removed direct petrol subsidies affecting consumers at the pump, it simultaneously extended tax exemptions, fiscal concessions, and other financial incentives to large-scale oil investors.

This dual approach, he said, amounts to selective economic policy favoring the wealthy. Atiku characterized the government's narrative around subsidy abolition as fundamentally misleading.

He pointed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company's own financial documentation as evidence that the state continues to fund the petroleum sector through alternative mechanisms, even as household energy costs have risen sharply. His criticism centers on what he describes as an inconsistency: the administration refuses government intervention to shield ordinary Nigerians from market-rate fuel prices, yet routinely deploys state resources to support corporate interests in the same industry.

The former presidential candidate, who ran on the African Democratic Congress platform, has presented an alternative economic recovery framework that includes targeted subsidy measures. Rather than complete subsidy removal, Atiku's proposal calls for strategic interventions designed to ease energy costs for ordinary households while maintaining fiscal discipline.

His team characterized recent attacks on such proposals as defensive reactions from an administration increasingly concerned about public perception of its economic policies. Atiku's remarks represent a sustained political challenge to the Tinubu administration's flagship economic decision.

Since taking office, President Tinubu has defended subsidy removal as essential for government fiscal sustainability and market efficiency. The debate reflects a fundamental disagreement over whether the state should maintain any form of direct or indirect support for fuel prices, with Atiku positioning targeted intervention as economically viable and the administration maintaining that universal subsidy removal is the only sustainable path forward.