The All Progressives Congress (APC) has fired back at politicians promising to return petrol subsidy, warning that the policy is too costly and cannot be sustained.
Director-General of the APC 2027 Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdulaziz Yari, specifically took a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his promise to introduce a targeted subsidy if elected president in 2027.
Yari described the promise as deceptive, insisting that Nigerians should not be misled into believing that the subsidy regime could simply be restored.
He spoke when members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) visited him.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), had faulted the Federal Government over the utilisation of funds saved from the removal of petrol subsidy.
He had also promised to adopt a targeted subsidy system to cushion the impact of rising petrol prices if elected.
But Yari rejected the proposal, saying the subsidy regime had become too expensive, opaque and difficult to justify.
According to him, there was no provision for petrol subsidy in the 2023 budget passed by the National Assembly before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office.
“Before Asiwaju came in in 2023, there was no budget for subsidy. National Assembly passed the budget in March, but there was no provision for subsidy in 2023 budget,” he said.
Yari warned politicians campaigning on a promise to restore the subsidy against misleading Nigerians.
“Anybody who is deceiving Nigerians, saying I’m going to bring this thing back, he’s lying to himself, he is lying internally, he’s lying eternally, he’s lying to Nigerians,” he said.
The former Zamfara State governor also questioned the huge sums allegedly spent on petrol subsidy, saying the country lacked accurate data on fuel consumption.
“This is about N20 trillion deal for a year, going to where we don’t know. Nobody can tell you exactly how much litres we need, what are the quantities per day,” he said.
Yari, who previously served as chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, said governors had repeatedly challenged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to provide accurate figures on petrol consumption.
“As chairman governors forum, we challenged NNPC for four years to tell us the exact consumption,” he said.
He said the explanations provided by officials were unsatisfactory, including claims that Nigeria was subsidising petrol consumed in other West African countries.
“When at the end of the day, we push harder, they said no, ‘we are doing subsidy for West Africa,’” he added.
The fresh clash over petrol subsidy is expected to become a major issue in the 2027 presidential campaign, with opposition politicians criticising the hardship Nigerians have faced since the removal of the policy.
The Tinubu administration, however, has maintained that subsidy removal was necessary to eliminate waste and free resources for development.
Yari said the APC would campaign on the achievements of the Tinubu administration rather than engage in personal attacks against opposition candidates.
“We are on the right path. By God’s grace, we have the data. This is what we are going to do in our campaign – facts and figures,” he said.
He added: “What we have done, what we achieved, and what we intend to do in the future. We don’t call any names. Names are not important to us, but rather what we’re going to do for Nigerians and what we’ve been doing for the past three and a half years.”
Yari expressed confidence that Tinubu would secure another term in office, saying the President remained the right person to lead the country beyond 2027.
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu is doing his best, and we believe he’s the right man for this job again,” he said.
