Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed the Presidency’s claim that his proposed targeted subsidy intervention will cost N22 trillion, describing it as “arithmetic vandalism” designed to justify continued hardship. The post Atiku faults presidency’s N22trn bill on subsidy proposal appeared first on Tribune Online .
Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed the Presidency’s claim that his proposed targeted subsidy intervention will cost N22 trillion, describing it as “arithmetic vandalism” designed to justify continued hardship.
In a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the latest petrol price hikes, despite softer crude oil prices, showed that President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms had become “a conveyor belt transferring pain from government policy directly into Nigerian homes.”
“The latest trick is the claim that Atiku’s targeted intervention will cost ₦22 trillion. That figure is not Atiku’s policy. It is Villa arithmetic built on Villa assumptions.
“They selected their own pump price, subsidy rate and financing model, multiplied their assumptions and then presented the result as Atiku’s bill. That is not economic analysis. It is arithmetic vandalism.”
Atiku clarified that he had never proposed a return to the opaque import-subsidy regime.
“Atiku has never proposed an unlimited resurrection of the import-subsidy racket. His proposal is targeted, capped, appropriated, transparent and independently audited, tied to domestic production and measurable consumer benefit,” he said.
‘Account for N30trn under Tinubu first’
The ADC candidate faulted the Presidency for manufacturing figures for an opposition policy while failing to reconcile revenues under the current administration.
“The irony is particularly striking because while the Presidency is quick to manufacture a ₦22 trillion bill for an opposition policy, it has yet to provide the detailed public reconciliation he has demanded for nearly ₦30 trillion in Federation revenues, deductions, savings and transfers identified from published FAAC figures,” Atiku said.
He said his earlier analysis put the cumulative amount requiring explanation at nearly N30 trillion as of July 2026.
“If Aso Rock has suddenly discovered a calculator, Nigerians would like it applied to the Federation Account too. Before inventing trillions for Atiku, account clearly for the trillions collected, deducted, saved and transferred under Tinubu,” he stated.
“The question remains painfully simple: with government revenues substantially higher, why are ordinary Nigerians still being crushed by food, transportation and energy costs? Where is the prosperity that supposedly followed subsidy removal?”
‘Nigerians paying real bills, not imaginary ones’
Atiku cited a report that MRS increased petrol from ₦1,205 to ₦1,310 per litre, with other marketers selling between ₦1,315 and above ₦1,400, even as crude oil prices declined from about $92 to $87.31 per barrel. He warned that prices could rise towards ₦1,500 per litre.
“At ₦1,500 per litre, 20 litres would cost ₦30,000. That is not an abstract figure on an economist’s spreadsheet. That is money disappearing from a family’s feeding allowance,” he said.
He traced how fuel costs cascade into food prices:
“The tomato farmer in Plateau pays more to move produce. The truck driver adds his fuel cost. The Mile 12 trader adds transportation. The neighbourhood market woman adds hers. By the time a mother buys tomatoes for stew, she is paying for every kilometre Tinubu made more expensive.
“The same mathematics follows bread from the bakery, garri from the farm, a child into a school bus and a worker into a commercial vehicle. The barber running a generator and the vulcaniser keeping his shop open feel it too. Petrol enters the Nigerian pocket long before the Nigerian enters a filling station.”
Faults timing of Tinubu’s Europe trip
Atiku also criticised the timing of President Tinubu’s announced three-week vacation in Europe, which the Presidency said began on August 30, starting in London.
“The President is constitutionally entitled to annual leave. But leadership also has optics, timing and responsibility. At the very moment petrol prices are surging, families are struggling to feed, businesses are battling higher energy costs and insecurity remains a daily fear, Nigerians watch their President leave for three weeks in Europe,” he said.
“Millions of Nigerians can no longer afford ordinary journeys within their own country… Yet the man presiding over this cost-of-living crisis can still leave Abuja for London while Nigerians remain trapped at home by the economy he created.
“That is the painful symbolism of Tinubu’s Nigeria: the President can afford to leave; millions of Nigerians can barely afford to move.”
‘Make Nigeria affordable again’
Atiku said his economic alternative prioritised household purchasing power over government revenue figures.
“The argument is not between reform and irresponsibility. It is between a reform that transfers every economic shock to the citizen and an alternative that asks how Nigeria’s resources can reduce production costs, transportation costs and the cost of living without restoring the corruption of the past,” he said.
“You cannot make transportation expensive, make food expensive, make energy expensive and then distribute rice as evidence that your economic policy works. You cannot break a man’s leg and demand applause because you brought him a crutch.
“The ₦22 trillion scarecrow will not reduce one bus fare or put one extra measure of garri in a family’s bowl. Nigerians do not live inside the Presidency’s calculator. They live in markets, buses, farms, workshops and kitchens where Tinubu’s policies confront them every day.
“A country in distress cannot be governed like a tourist itinerary. Tinubu made Nigeria expensive. Atiku will make Nigeria affordable again.”
