Kenneth Okonkwo, Spokesperson for the 2027 Presidential Campaign of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has clarified that Atiku’s proposed petrol subsidy intervention is specifically designed to make fuel affordable for ordinary Nigerians and is fundamentally different from the old, corruption-prone subsidy regime.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Okonkwo dismissed criticisms from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Presidency, stating that the President misunderstood Atiku’s policy.
“The whole idea of the Atiku plan is affordability of fuel to the ordinary Nigerian,” Okonkwo said. “It is ignorance of Tinubu to say that Atiku wants to go back to the subsidy of the old.”
He explained that Atiku’s proposal referred to as the Atiku Fuel Affordability Plan (AFAP) and aligned with the broader Atiku Economic Recovery Plan (AERP) is built on Nigeria’s growing domestic refining capacity. Under the plan, the government would supply crude oil to qualifying local public and private refineries at a fair and preferential price. This would lower production costs and enable the refineries to sell petrol at reduced, affordable rates to Nigerian consumers.
“He said, ‘I will supply the needed crude to our local refineries at a price that will be fair enough for them to use to produce the fuel at a reduced and affordable price to Nigerians,’” Okonkwo quoted Atiku.
Okonkwo stressed that the new model shifts support from imported refined products and middlemen to domestic production. It is targeted, capped, transparently budgeted, and independently audited. Preferential crude allocation would be strictly tied to verified domestic refining output and the mandatory passage of price benefits to Nigerian consumers. Diversion of crude or products, falsification of records, or failure to deliver affordable fuel to the local market would attract severe penalties, including loss of eligibility and repayment of benefits.
The campaign spokesperson noted that Nigeria now has functioning local refining capacity and should leverage its crude resources to bring down the cost of petroleum products, rather than remain dependent on expensive imports. The ultimate goal, he said, is not merely cheaper petrol but lower transportation, food, and production costs, stronger businesses, more jobs, and restored purchasing power for Nigerians.
Atiku’s team maintains that this production-linked approach represents a clean break from the opaque, open-ended, import-based subsidy system of the past and offers a practical path to energy affordability without the fiscal recklessness of previous regimes.