2027 Presidency: Atiku accuses Tinubu of using 90-day relief plan as election bait

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (AD), Atiku Abubakar, has described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration’s 90-day cost-of-living relief proposal as a scam.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, on Friday, Atiku condemned Tinubu’s 90-day cost-of-living plan as election bait, arguing that its deadline falls after Nigerians have voted.

"The presidential election is 86 days away. Yet President Bola Tinubu’s National Economic Council has announced a cost-of-living plan that will run for 90 days.

"The arithmetic is plain: the plan ends after Nigerians have voted. After three and a half years of hardship, this government is asking families to carry another promise into the polling booth and wait for relief until the votes are counted.

"This is election bait. Tinubu is offering hungry Nigerians the promise of affordable food, but the promised relief comes with a deadline that outlasts the election. The message is simple: vote first; relief later. Nigerians should refuse the bait and judge this government by the three and a half years they have already lived through.

"The plan lists five priorities: food affordability, tax harmonisation, completion of important projects, removal of investment bottlenecks and household support. These are the very problems Nigerians have been demanding that this government address since it took office. Families have cut meals. Workers spend more of their wages getting to work. Manufacturers struggle to produce, and businesses have closed. Tinubu cannot erase three and a half years of hardship with a 90-day announcement.

"When he removed the petrol subsidy, the impact on transport, food and production costs was predictable. Protection for vulnerable households should have come alongside that decision. Instead, the government imposed the costs immediately and left Nigerians to wait for the benefits. Now, after years of hardship, it has suddenly discovered that people need affordable food.

"A government cannot put a 90-day deadline on hunger, the cost-of-living crisis and insecurity and call it an economic policy.

"Tinubu is also expected in Kaduna to launch his re-election campaign. Before the music starts and the crowd is assembled, he should remember what the state has endured under his presidency.

"On 3 December 2023, an Army drone struck civilians gathered for a Maulud celebration in Tudun Biri. At least 85 people were killed. Tinubu sent his Vice President to visit survivors; he did not go himself to sit with families mourning their dead.

"In September 2024, residents of Giwa reported that another military airstrike killed at least 24 civilians. Families in Kajuru have buried loved ones and searched for relatives abducted by bandits. In September 2025, an attack involving kidnapping in Kachia affected 152 people; eight deaths and nine injuries were recorded.

"Kaduna has also suffered devastating storms and floods. In July 2025, windstorms and rain affected 6,172 people and damaged hundreds of shelters across five local government areas. In September, flooding in Zaria affected 476 people and left dozens injured.

"When families were burying their dead, searching for their children and clearing wreckage from their homes, Kaduna needed the attention of its President. Yet the Presidency’s account of Tinubu’s September 2025 visit listed a wedding and a courtesy call. Now, with an election approaching, he is returning to launch a campaign.

"Tinubu can find his way to Kaduna for a wedding. He can find his way there for votes. Why was he absent when grieving families needed their President?

"He must not turn those families into a backdrop for a campaign celebration. Before asking Kaduna for another mandate, he should explain what has been done for the victims of Tudun Biri, what became of investigations into civilian deaths and how his government will protect communities still threatened by abduction.

"The same pattern of grand announcements and little relief is evident in the government’s fuel promotion. NNPC began a petrol discount promotion on 1 October, which the government later presented as part of its relief effort. I visited NNPC Retail stations myself. Attendants told me there was no discount, and I bought petrol at ₦1,405 per litre.

"With barely a week left before the offer expires, my experience as a customer was simple: a promise of relief, and a higher price at the pump. If NNPC says motorists can access a discount through an app, it must explain why customers arriving at its stations were told there was none. How many customers received the discount? At which stations? How many litres were sold at the reduced price? Publish the figures.

"NNPC has about 900 retail stations in a country where Nigerians buy petrol from thousands of outlets. What reach can a ₦66-per-litre promotion have when it is confined to that network? And what lasting relief does ₦66 offer families whose transport and food bills remain high?

"Tinubu announces relief at a podium. Nigerians arrive at the pump and pay more. Now his government expects the country to trust another announcement, this time with a 90-day deadline.

"The timing is impossible to ignore. Atiku Abubakar has made the cost-of-living crisis central to his campaign and pledged to make Nigeria affordable again. Tinubu’s government is trying to appropriate that message with a plan that runs through the election. Nigerians should not trade three and a half years of lived hardship for three months of promises," he stated.