Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has condemned the Federal Government’s proposed 30-day petrol discount at Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited stations, describing it as a desperate and temporary gesture that cannot repair the damage caused by the hike in fuel prices.
The federal government had earlier announced that it will offer a discount on petrol dispensed at the filling stations of the NNPC Limited for the next 30 days.
Atiku, in a statement issued on Thursday by the Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Phrank Shaibu, said the President Bola Tinubu administration had watched Nigerians endure hardship without offering meaningful relief.
He stated: “Now, as the election draws closer, President Tinubu is dangling a temporary discount at the very epicentre of the cost-of-living crisis that has tormented households and businesses.
“Atiku totally rejects this calendar-scheduled, election-laced subsidy package. Nigerians are not fools to be offered a month of discounted fuel after years of punishing prices and then expected to forget the hardship when the discount expires. This is shameless and heartless.”
Atiku said the proposed 30-day discount was not an economic plan but a political bandage on a wound allegedly created by the government.
“What happens on Day 31? Nigerians wake up to the same brutal prices, the same punishing transport fares and the same rising cost of food. The government cannot manufacture relief for one month and expect Nigerians to applaud while the hardship remains,” he said.
He noted that the offer is limited to NNPC stations, while the government has yet to state how much motorists will save per litre or guarantee that any savings for transport operators will be passed on to passengers through lower fares.
FG announces petrol discount for one month
The former vice president said the Tinubu administration’s sudden reversal on the sensitive social welfare issue was an admission of guilt over the hardship Nigerians have endured.
The ADC candidate added: “It also exposed the weakness of the government’s repeated claims that meaningful relief was impossible.
“This volte-face proves that the production-support proposal I have advanced is workable, achievable and not complicated. The Tinubu government and its spin doctors have tried to make it sound impossible, yet they are now reaching for a temporary subsidy-style intervention because the pain has become impossible to ignore”.
Atiku reiterated his proposal for capped and budgeted production support tied to fuel refined in Nigeria, with safeguards to ensure that the benefit reaches consumers and supports local refining.
“Nigerians need lasting relief, not a countdown to the return of hardship. Tinubu’s government cannot spend years telling Nigerians to endure, then offer 30 days of relief and call it a solution,” Atiku stated.
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