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The Presidency on Sunday rejected former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s proposed petrol production subsidy, calling it “a dangerous mathematical fantasy wrapped in political deceit.”
In an official statement, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, accused Atiku, the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, of “shallow, election-laced demagoguery” after Atiku claimed President Bola Tinubu adopted his economic plan without the essential production subsidy.
Dare argued that Nigeria lacks the unencumbered crude oil reserves necessary to sustain such a policy.
Citing Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele, the Presidency explained that while Nigeria produces roughly 1.8 million barrels per day for over 200 million citizens, joint ventures and production sharing contracts leave the country with fewer than 700,000 barrels per day of unencumbered crude.
“To propose a blanket ‘targeted production subsidy’ on crude without the physical, unencumbered volume to back it up is pure economic illiteracy,” Dare asserted, warning that such measures invite “fraudulent round-tripping and fiscal haemorrhage.”
The Presidency also defended the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Retail’s 30-day fuel discount and interim N1,350 per litre ex-gantry ceiling, insisting it represents a structural shock absorber rather than a return to price controls.
“When NNPCL Retail agrees to sell fuel at landing cost for 30 days during an unprecedented global crude price spike, it is not writing checks to opaque import cartels,” Dare said, adding that “N1,400 today and N1,400 tomorrow provides far greater economic stability than N1,500 today and N1,300 tomorrow.”
Responding to Atiku’s criticism of President Tinubu, the Presidency dismissed the attack, declaring that “the Nigerian electorate is far too sophisticated to trade long-term national economic security for Atiku’s shallow, short-term demagoguery.”
