By Sabiu Abdullahi
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has pledged to restore the petrol subsidy if elected president in the 2027 general election.
Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), made the declaration during an interview on Wednesday.
He said he did not oppose the removal of the subsidy but questioned how the funds saved from the policy had been used by the government.
“I did not oppose the removal of the oil subsidy, but where is the money? Where did it go? It was intended to reduce poverty and help children attend school. Where is the money now? It seems they are just stealing it,” Atiku said in Hausa.
He added, “If elected, I will bring back the oil subsidy, and whoever stole the money must refund it.”
According to Atiku, the removal of the subsidy would have been acceptable if the government had invested the resulting savings in projects that would improve the lives of Nigerians.
“The government successfully removed the subsidy, but we do not know where the money went. If they had used the money for development, to solve security problems, for education, and to create opportunities for the youth, it would be different. If elected, I can remove the subsidy and use the money to do all these properly.”
President Bola Tinubu announced the end of the petrol subsidy in his inaugural address on May 29, 2023.
The policy was followed by a sharp rise in the cost of living as petrol prices increased and the cost of goods and services rose across the country.
However, some state governors have said their monthly allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) increased considerably after the subsidy was removed.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, said on Wednesday that the removal of the subsidy had generated N15.8 trillion in additional resources for the federation between June 2023 and December 2025.
Oyedele attributed the increase partly to higher revenue collections, particularly the naira value of transactions denominated in US dollars after the exchange-rate reforms.