The camp of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has criticised former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, over his dismissal of Atiku’s promise to reintroduce fuel subsidy if elected president in 2027.
Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, in a statement on Tuesday, rejected Fayemi’s comparison of the proposal to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket used in the 2023 election.
Fayemi had, during an appearance on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Monday, described Atiku’s subsidy proposal as a political strategy rather than a viable economic policy.
He said, “My take on that is that Atiku’s proposal of subsidy is politically equivalent to our own Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023. It’s a political strategy. It’s not an economic construct.”
Reacting, Ibe argued that the key issue was not whether Atiku’s proposal had political implications, but whether the policy was economically viable and capable of addressing the challenges facing Nigerians.
He clarified that Atiku was not proposing a return to the previous fuel subsidy regime, which he said was characterised by opacity, questionable import claims and corruption.
According to him, Atiku’s proposal is instead based on a production-anchored subsidy model, focused on boosting domestic production and refining.
The Atiku camp maintained that the proposed approach would differ fundamentally from the subsidy system that operated before its removal, arguing that it would be tied to local production rather than dependence on imported petroleum products.
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