The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has slammed the Federal Government over the payment of the fuel subsidy.
Previously, the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government had maintained that it would no longer subsidise fuel costs.
In December, the government said contrary to the claim by the World Bank that it is still paying subsidy on petrol, the era of petrol subsidy is “gone for good.”
A draft copy report of the Accelerated Stabilization and Advancement Plan (ASAP) presented to Tinubu by the Finance Minister, Wale Edun, on Tuesday, showed that the estimated expenditure on fuel subsidy for 2024 is N5.4 trillion, a sum of N1.8 trillion more than the amount spent in 2023.
The ASAP was designed to address key challenges affecting the reform initiatives and stimulate development in various sectors of the economy.
“At current rates, expenditure on fuel subsidy is projected to reach ₦5.4 trillion by the end of 2024. This compares unfavourably with ₦3.6 trillion in 2023 and ₦2.0 trillion in 2022,” a draft copy of the ASAP presented by Edun said.
Reacting via X, Atiku wrote: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at his inauguration on May 29, 2023, announced the abolishment of the subsidy on PMS, popularly known as fuel.
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“Ever since, it has been a bragging right of Tinubu and officials of his administration.
” I had in my statement reviewing the one year of the Bola Tinubu administration urged the government to come clean on the actual position of the subsidy policy.
“These were my exact words: ‘..provide clarity on the fuel subsidy regime, including the fiscal commitments and benefits from the fuel subsidy reform and the impact of this on the Federation Accounts. It is curious that since April 2024, fuel queues have mounted at many filling stations across Nigeria, and the infamous ‘black market’ has sprouted in several states. How much PMS is being imported and distributed, and at what cost? What is the implicit subsidy?'”
According to the former Vice President, the subsidy regime had been characterised by “opaqueness.”
Querying the situation where the subsidy is still being paid under the cover without Nigerians in the know, he said like millions of Nigerians, he was shocked to learn through media reports that
the “government is still supporting downstream consumption.”
He added: “Now we know that expenditure on fuel subsidy may reach N5.4 trillion in 2024, compared to the N3.6 trillion spent in 2023, the same year that Tinubu claimed to have abolished fuel subsidy
“I wish to restate that Nigeria is not working, and what we have had in a little over a year is a cocktail of trial-and-error economic policies. Paying subsidies and lying about it is nothing to brag about. Nigerians deserve better than this deception.”
