Atiku’s subsidy proposal designed to make petrol affordable — Okonkwo

ABUJA — Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for the 2027 presidential campaign of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed criticism of Atiku’s plan to restore petrol subsidy if elected, saying the proposal is aimed at reducing fuel prices and has nothing to do with the subsidy regime of the past.

Okonkwo, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu misunderstood the policy proposed by Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Atiku had, on Wednesday, said he would restore petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027, a position that immediately generated controversy, particularly over his reported advocacy for subsidy removal during the 2023 presidential campaign.

The former vice-president had also accused the Tinubu administration of failing to account for the funds saved from the removal of petrol subsidy.

Reacting to the proposal, Tinubu described it as evidence of “serious ignorance of governance and economy,” arguing that the subsidy regime had imposed a heavy financial burden on the country.

But Okonkwo said Atiku was not proposing a return to the old system, which he described as a product of excessive dependence on imported petrol and alleged manipulation of subsidy payments.

“The whole idea of the Atiku plan is affordability of fuel to the ordinary Nigerian,” he said.

He added: “It is ignorance of Tinubu to say that Atiku wants to go back to the subsidy of the old.”

According to Okonkwo, Atiku’s proposal, which he called the Atiku Fuel Affordability Plan (AFAP), is predicated on the availability of domestic refining capacity and government intervention to ensure that local refineries obtain crude oil at affordable prices.

He argued that making crude available to domestic refineries at a fair price would lower production costs and ultimately make petrol more affordable to consumers.

“He said, ‘I will supply the needed crude to our local refineries at a price that will be fair enough for them to use to produce the fuel at a reduced and affordable price to Nigerians,’” Okonkwo said.

The campaign spokesman argued that Nigeria would not have required a petrol subsidy in the first place if successive governments had ensured adequate domestic refining capacity and sufficient fuel supply.

He said the old subsidy regime became associated with corruption because the country relied heavily on imported petrol.

“This was the way the subsidy of the old operated. They were importing 100 per cent of the fuel. We didn’t have any refinery,” he said.

Okonkwo alleged that the system created opportunities for manipulation of import volumes and prices, with Nigerians ultimately bearing the cost.

He, however, insisted that such a system was not what Atiku was proposing. “Atiku is not going back to that and cannot even go back to that,” he said.