Contrary to the claim by President Bola Tinubu in May 2023 that the fuel subsidy regime is over, the Federal Government still makes provisions for subsidy payment, according to Atiku Abubakar.
Tinubu made the now-famous “subsidy is gone” pronouncement during his inauguration on May 29, 2023, ending the fuel subsidy era that has lasted for decades.
But Atiku who was the flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election has accused the current administration of paying fuel subsidy.
“Now we know that expenditure on fuel subsidy may reach N5.4 trillion in 2024, compared to the N3.6 trillion spent in 2023, the same year that Tinubu claimed to have abolished fuel subsidy,” Atiku said.
“I wish to restate that Nigeria is not working, and what we have had in a little over a year is a cocktail of trial-and-error economic policies. Paying subsidies and lying about it is nothing to brag about. Nigerians deserve better than this deception.
“President Bola Tinubu, at his inauguration on May 29, 2023, announced the abolishment of the subsidy on PMS, popularly known as fuel.
Ever since it has been a bragging right of Tinubu and officials of his administration. I had in my statement reviewing the one year of the Bola Tinubu administration urged the government to come clean on the actual position of the subsidy policy.
“If the subsidy regime had been characterised by opaqueness, what would we say of a situation where the subsidy is still being paid under the cover without Nigerians in the know?
”Like millions of Nigerians, I was shocked to learn through media reports that the “government is still supporting downstream consumption.”
Hours after Atiku’s comment, the presidency insisted that payment of subsidy on fuel was gone.
“The government wants to restate that its position on fuel subsidy has not changed from what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared on 29 May 2023.
The fuel subsidy regime has ended. There is no N5.4 trillion being provisioned for it in 2024, as being widely speculated and discussed,” presidential aide Bayo Onanuga said.
