Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the Federal Government’s proposed 30-day fuel discount at NNPC stations, describing it as a desperate, temporary gesture that cannot repair the damage caused by the high cost of fuel.
Atiku, in a statement on Wednesday signed by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, said the Tinubu administration’s attempt to dangle a fuel discount was reckless, disgraceful and scandalous.
According to him, the same government watched Nigerians endure excruciating hardship without meaningful relief, only to offer a temporary discount as the election approaches.
“Atiku totally rejects this calendar-scheduled, election-laced subsidy package. Nigerians are not fools to be offered a month of discounted fuel after years of punishing prices and then expected to forget the hardship when the discount expires. This is shameless and heartless,” the statement said.
He said the proposed discount was not an economic plan but a political bandage on a wound the government helped create.
“What happens on Day 31? Nigerians wake up to the same brutal prices, the same punishing transport fares and the same rising cost of food. The government cannot manufacture relief for one month and expect Nigerians to applaud while the hardship remains,” he queried.
Atiku noted that the offer is limited to NNPC stations, while the government has yet to state how much motorists will save per litre or guarantee that any savings for transport operators will be passed on to passengers through lower fares.
He said the administration’s sudden reversal was itself an admission of guilt over the hardship Nigerians have endured and exposed the weakness of its repeated claims that meaningful relief was impossible.
“This volte-face proves that the production-support proposal I have advanced is workable, achievable and not complicated. The Tinubu government and its spin doctors have tried to make it sound impossible, yet they are now reaching for a temporary subsidy-style intervention because the pain has become impossible to ignore,” Atiku said.
He reiterated his proposal for capped and budgeted production support tied to fuel refined in Nigeria, with safeguards to ensure that the benefit reaches consumers and supports local refining.
“Nigerians need lasting relief, not a countdown to the return of hardship. Tinubu’s government cannot spend years telling Nigerians to endure, then offer 30 days of relief and call it a solution,” he added.
Atiku restated his commitment to making life affordable again, declaring, “Tinubu made life expensive. I will make life affordable again.”
