The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, has warned that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s proposal to restore fuel subsidy could reverse the economic gains recorded under the ongoing reforms of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
In a statement issued on Sunday by his Special Adviser on Media and Information Strategy, Abimbola Tooki, the APC National Chairman said the former Vice President’s plan to reinstate the subsidy regime would return Nigerians to long fuel queues, threaten the payment of the current minimum wage, and lead to the cancellation of education grants for Nigerian students, among other negative consequences for the masses.
Professor Yilwatda stated that the proposal raises fundamental questions about how such a policy would be financed and sustained without returning Nigeria to the cycle of fiscal pressures that characterised the previous subsidy arrangement.
“The former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar’s proposal to restore fuel subsidy raises fundamental questions about how such a policy would be financed and sustained without returning Nigeria to the cycle of fiscal pressures that characterised the previous arrangement,” he said.
“Subsidy may appear attractive because it promises cheaper petrol, but Nigerians must also ask the bigger question: who pays for the subsidy and what happens to the resources that government must divert to finance it? A policy cannot be judged only by its immediate benefit at the pump. We must examine its impact on government revenues, salaries, pensions, education, healthcare, infrastructure and the overall capacity of government to meet its obligations to citizens.”
The APC Chairman stressed that restoring the subsidy would undermine the fiscal stability of states, reverse progress in domestic refining, and jeopardise the hard-won economic adjustments made since 2023. He urged Nigerians to scrutinise competing economic programmes ahead of the 2027 elections and distinguish between policies designed to address structural problems and promises that offer short-term political appeal while creating longer-term fiscal difficulties.
Professor Yilwatda further noted that economic policy cannot be reduced to election-season promises, insisting that any proposal to restore a costly subsidy regime must be subjected to rigorous scrutiny given the enormous fiscal burden and economic distortions previously associated with it.