Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has insisted that his position on subsidy has not changed, adding that he will restore it.

Speaking on Tuesday when he received the Osun State leadership of the ADC in Abuja, Atiku disowned comments made by one of his media aides, Paul Ibe, during an interview on AIT, stating that he was not speaking on his authority.

“Earlier, one of my press aides contradicted me in a policy statement as far as subsidy is concerned.

“I want to repeat categorically that when I said I would return to subsidy, I will! Nigeria is rich enough to look after the welfare of its citizens. Let it be clearly stated that he was not speaking on my own authority,” Atiku said.

Ibe had earlier in his interview said his principal would restore petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027, but would gradually phase out the intervention after the economy recovers.

But Atiku, in a statement posted on his X, countered, saying, “On the question of subsidy, my position has not changed and will not change: I will restore it! A nation as blessed as ours has no business abandoning its citizens to hardship. Nigeria is rich enough to look after her own.

“I believe the wealth of a nation is not measured by how much government collects, but by how much the money in the pockets of its people can buy.

“I want wages to have value again. I want farmers to move produce without transport swallowing their profits. I want families to fill their baskets without emptying their pockets. I want businesses to produce, employ and prosper.

“That is why I will restore targeted subsidy and put purchasing power back in the hands of Nigerians.

“When fuel rises, transport rises. When transport rises, food rises. When food rises, families suffer. I will break that wretched chain that has defined our national life in the nearly four years of Tinubu’s presidency.

“I will support Nigerian production, reduce energy costs and restore purchasing power. I will not restore the import racket; I will restore relief.

“I restated this commitment when I received the Osun State leadership of the ADC in Abuja on Tuesday. I will make the naira in your pocket worth more, make daily living affordable again, and secure our people. That is the Nigeria I intend to build.”

Atiku also drew a clear line between his proposed petroleum intervention and Nigeria’s former fuel import subsidy regime, saying any support under his administration would be targeted at domestic production and tied to measurable performance.

In a statement issued on Tuesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president’s camp said Atiku had not proposed bringing back the old system under which government subsidised imported petrol, but rather a capped and transparent intervention designed to support local refining, increase supply and ultimately bring down energy costs.

“For the avoidance of doubt, policy belongs to the candidate, not the spokesperson.

“Our responsibility as communicators is to explain Atiku’s position accurately, not create formulations capable of confusing Nigerians or handing opponents convenient talking points,” Shaibu said.

According to him, Atiku’s proposal would involve a “targeted, capped, transparently budgeted and independently audited subsidy,” for domestic refining and production.

The intervention, he added, would not operate according to an arbitrary withdrawal date.

Instead, it would be phased out as domestic refining capacity expands, fuel supply becomes more stable, and competition improves.

“There is no arbitrary withdrawal date. As domestic refining expands, supply stabilises, competition deepens, and the market becomes capable of delivering affordable prices without government support, the intervention progressively becomes unnecessary,” he added.

He likened the proposed arrangement to temporary scaffolding used during construction.

“You do not remove scaffolding because the calendar says so. You remove it when the building can stand securely on its own,” he said.

The clarification comes as the fuel subsidy debate has returned to the centre of the 2027 presidential contest.

President Bola Tinubu abolished the petrol subsidy at his inauguration on May 29, 2023, a decision that triggered a sharp increase in petrol prices and fed into a broader cost-of-living crisis.

The reform, alongside the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market, has also been defended by the Federal Government as necessary to strengthen public finances and attract investment.

The subsidy question has nevertheless remained politically sensitive because of its direct impact on transport, food prices, household expenses and the operating costs of businesses.

Atiku reignited the debate last week when he said he would bring back the petroleum subsidy if elected, arguing that Nigerians had not benefited sufficiently from the savings associated with its removal.

His latest clarification seeks to redefine that position as a production-support mechanism rather than a return to the old import-driven arrangement.

The ADC presidential candidate said any intervention would be subject to controls intended to prevent the leakages associated with the former subsidy regime.

Rather than focusing on when government support would end, Shaibu said the emphasis should be on whether the intervention achieves its intended economic objectives.

“The real question is simple: Why has everything become so expensive, and what will Atiku do to make life affordable again?” he asked.

He accused the Tinubu administration of transferring the burden of its economic reforms to households and businesses, arguing that an Atiku government would instead focus on reducing production and transportation costs, strengthening domestic refining and rebuilding purchasing power.

“Tinubu transferred the shock of his reforms to Nigerian families.

“Atiku will reduce production and transportation costs, strengthen domestic refining, and restore purchasing power.

“The choice is not removal of subsidy versus restoration of subsidy. It is Expensive Nigeria versus Affordable Nigeria,” Shaibu said.

Ibe, speaking on AIT, also said the proposed subsidy would differ from the former regime, as government support would be tied to crude oil production and domestic refining.

He said the policy would provide temporary relief to Nigerians and businesses, stimulate economic activity and improve productivity.

“What he’s simply saying is that the subsidy that he is advocating will be tied to the barrel, the crude oil barrel. This is perhaps the only thing that we have in so much abundance that Nigerians have not yet benefited from,” Ibe said.

According to him, crude oil would be supplied to local refiners at a discounted price, enabling them to produce petrol and diesel at lower costs, which would translate into reduced pump prices for consumers.

“The crude oil will be sold at a discounted price, subsidised to refiners, and that will enable refiners to be able to produce fuel and diesel at a cheap cost. And when they produce cheaply, they will sell at the real pump price,” he said.

Ibe said an independent committee would determine the appropriate price of crude oil supplied to refiners, taking prevailing market conditions into account.

He added that despite the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector, government could monitor prices to ensure refiners and marketers operated within the framework of the policy.

“There’ll be a window because, of course, we deregulated. You may not fix the price, but you can have price monitoring to ensure that everybody aligns with what government hopes to achieve,” he said.

Ibe said the intervention would be temporary and aimed at reviving economic activity and increasing productivity.

“It is not something that is… It is for a time, and it is essentially to ensure that we jumpstart this economy,” he said.

The former vice-president’s spokesman also criticised the administration of President Tinubu for removing petrol subsidy alongside other major economic reforms without allowing the economy sufficient time to adjust.

“No surgeon, no doctor would carry out two or more serious major surgeries, one after the other. They would do one, allow the patient to recuperate, and then undertake the second, or the third.

“But what has this administration done? The issue of subsidy, flippant. No cabinet. No advisers. Just in the heat of the moment, it has been removed. No shock absorbers. Nothing. No palliatives. Absolutely nothing,” Ibe said.

He argued that the simultaneous removal of petrol subsidy, deregulation of the foreign exchange market and electricity subsidy had worsened the economic hardship faced by Nigerians.

The presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, has said he asked former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, to apologise to him following their heated exchange at the Nigerian Bar Association’s Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt.

Sowore said he made the demand after the confrontation at the conference, arguing that the former governor benefited from the democracy he fought to establish in Nigeria.

The AAC candidate stated this in an interview with Arise News on Tuesday while reflecting on his clash with Amaechi during the political session of the NBA conference on Monday.

Sowore said his political experience should not be measured only by whether he had previously held public office, stressing that his long-standing struggle for democracy and good governance had contributed to creating the platform on which politicians such as Amaechi rose to power.

He said, “That’s why I said to him after the event, I called him and said, you should have apologised to me, and he asked me to come over to his house to eat and drink a beer.

“And I said, no, I don’t want you to poison me, because I know you’re not happy. I don’t think he would do that. No, I mean, I’m just kidding.”

Sowore said he would not have been able to establish his record of political activism if Nigeria had remained under military rule, adding that Amaechi’s political career was also made possible by the return to democracy.

“If I didn’t fight for democracy, Rotimi Amaechi would not be standing there yesterday if we were still under military rule.

“He would never have been a speaker of the House for eight years, governor for eight years, minister for eight years. That’s one of the guys who benefited from my extraordinary struggle for democracy,” he said.

The former presidential candidate and publisher said his experience was derived from his passion and commitment to good governance, arguing that leadership was about vision, mission and the ability to bring people together to achieve results.

“When people are looking for leaders, they are not looking for an accountant alone, they’re looking for someone who understands a little bit of everything. And who can find everybody who can make things work. That’s what leadership is all about,” he said.

Sowore also rejected the argument that a person seeking the presidency must first have experience in governance, saying his activism had given him a different form of leadership experience.

“That is why I’m saying that they owe me a lot for creating the avenue for them to become leaders. Even though they didn’t fight for what made them become leaders, I did,” he said.

The AAC candidate had on Monday challenged the records of politicians who had previously held public office during the NBA conference, criticising Amaechi’s tenure as Rivers governor and his time as Minister of Transportation.

He had also faulted the former minister’s role in the country’s transportation policy, particularly in relation to fuel subsidy.

“We have a former governor of Rivers state here, Amaechi, who built a rail line that went nowhere. If that rail line was working subsidy would have been working for Rivers people,” Sowore said at the conference.

Amaechi, who is the vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, defended his record, citing roads and primary schools built during his tenure as governor, as well as the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna railway projects executed while he was Transportation Minister.

He challenged Rivers lawyers at the conference to take Sowore around the state to see projects he had delivered.

The argument escalated when Amaechi told Sowore, “When politicians are talking, close your mouth.”

Sowore, however, said on Tuesday that the disagreement did not change his position that his contribution to Nigeria’s democratic development constituted a form of leadership experience.

He also maintained his opposition to the removal of fuel subsidy, saying he had warned against the policy long before the government implemented it.

“As a matter of fact, most of the ideas you are seeing that they are picking now, we started fighting for it. We have clearly articulated them. We told them, remove our subsidy, we’ll ruin the economy,” he said.

Sowore argued that the economic hardship Nigerians experienced after the removal of the subsidy vindicated his position, saying those who claimed to have greater experience had now adopted some of the positions he had long advocated.

He also took another swipe at Amaechi, saying the former governor was not an “Excellency” because he had not done anything excellent for Nigeria.

The comment came as Sowore and Amaechi continued to trade criticisms following their confrontation at the NBA conference, where politicians including Peter Obi and Adewole Adebayo also discussed governance, insecurity, fuel subsidy and Nigeria’s political future ahead of the 2027 elections.

A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, Dino Melaye, has urged President Bola Tinubu and members of his family to start packing their belongings from the Presidential Villa.

He declared that the ADC will defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2027 general elections.

Melaye said the outcome of the election would reflect Nigerians’ growing dissatisfaction with the Tinubu administration, which he accused of failing to address hunger, insecurity and other challenges confronting the country.

The former senator and lawyer spoke in an interview with Arise TV on Monday.

He expressed confidence in the ADC’s chances, saying the party’s winning strategy was straightforward because Nigerians were ready for a change of government.

“The winning strategy for the ADC is very simple. The people are with us. The people are tired of maladministration.

“They are tired of lies. They are tired of borrowing. They are tired of three budgets in three successions not being implemented,” Melaye said.

He alleged that despite the government borrowing money to fund its budgets, several contracts awarded by the government remained unpaid.

“For example, you say you borrowed money to run the budget. You have borrowed the money. You have collected the money. But the budget has not been run.

“The budget has not been funded. Contracts awarded in 2024 have not been paid for. You are still implementing the 2024 budget in 2026,” he said.

Melaye said the hardship, insecurity, killings and alleged corruption in the country had created a disconnect between Nigerians and the government.

He maintained that Nigerians were watching the developments in the country and would express their dissatisfaction through the ballot.

“So I am telling you that this enchantment, the hunger in the land, the insecurity in the land, the killings in the land, the stealing, overstealing that is going on in the land already have shown and demonstrated that there is a complete disconnect between the people and government,” he said.

The ADC chieftain also criticised the Tinubu administration, saying Nigerians were now afraid of government rather than the government being mindful of the reactions of the people.

“But under Tinubu administration, people are afraid of government because they are so brazen, they are so wicked, they are so nonchalant, they don’t give a damn,” he said.

Melaye further accused the President of making comments suggesting that election rigging, violence and ballot snatching were acceptable in politics.

He said such statements were inappropriate for a President who should serve as a role model to young Nigerians.

“You have a president that have come out on air to tell the whole world that all is fair in politics. Rigging is fair in politics. Violence is fair in politics. Ballot snatching is fair in politics,” he said.

Melaye predicted that the result of the 2027 election would lead to a change of government, urging the President and his family to prepare to leave the Villa.

“And I’m telling you that the results will tell in January. The president and his family members should begin to pack their luggage and things from the villa, including those in the boys’ quarters of the villa, because there will be a change of government,” he said.

Melaye resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party in July 2025 and joined the ADC, after previously serving as spokesperson for the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

He has since become one of the ADC’s most vocal figures, pursuing legal challenges on the party’s behalf and clashing publicly with the Independent National Electoral Commission

Source: punchng.com

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