The Presidency has dismissed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s proposed production subsidy on petrol, describing it as “a dangerous mathematical fantasy wrapped in political deceit” and arguing that Nigeria lacks sufficient unencumbered crude oil to sustain the plan.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, stated this in a statement issued on Sunday titled, ‘Atiku’s Demagoguery in the Face of Tinubu’s Logical Policies.’
Dare described Atiku’s recent press conference in Abuja as “a seminal example of shallow, election-laced demagoguery,” accusing the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate of misrepresenting the government’s petrol pricing measures.
Atiku had criticised the 30-day petrol discount offered by NNPC Retail and the price modulation framework, describing them as a “panic-driven gimmick.” He also accused President Bola Tinubu of adopting his economic proposals without including the production subsidy he said would make them effective.
In response, Dare cited the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, as saying that Nigeria produces about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil daily for a population of more than 200 million.
However, he argued that the Federal Government does not directly own all the crude produced because of joint ventures and production-sharing contracts, as well as production costs, royalties and profit-oil sharing arrangements.
According to the Presidency, these obligations leave the government with fewer than 700,000 barrels of unencumbered crude oil daily.
“To propose a blanket ‘targeted production subsidy’ on crude without the physical, unencumbered volume to back it up is pure economic illiteracy,” Dare said, warning that such a policy could encourage “opacity, fraudulent round-tripping, and fiscal haemorrhage” associated with Nigeria’s former petrol subsidy regime.
The Presidency also argued that domestic refineries, including the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, require more crude oil than the government can freely supply without breaching existing international contracts. It said this was one reason Dangote and other local refiners also import crude.
Dare rejected comparisons between crude oil allocation and agricultural commodities such as garri and cassava, arguing that they misrepresented how commodity markets operate.
He also cited the United States and Qatar as examples of countries that have reduced or avoided broad energy subsidies despite their production capacity and natural resources.
On the NNPC Retail discount, the Presidency rejected claims that the arrangement amounted to a return to petrol subsidy. Dare said the discount was introduced to mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence anniversary and had been offered for a further 30 days.
“When NNPC Retail agrees to sell fuel at landing cost for 30 days during an unprecedented global crude price spike, it is not writing checks to opaque import cartels. It is leveraging its corporate balance sheet to absorb short-term global volatility, backed directly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.
Dare described the negotiated interim ceiling of N1,350 per litre on ex-gantry costs as “a structural shock absorber, not price control.”
Under the arrangement, refiners and importers would absorb short-term cost increases above the ceiling and recover them later when crude prices fall or the exchange rate adjusts. The statement said the ceiling would be reviewed monthly based on published cost audits.
“N1,400 today and N1,400 tomorrow provides far greater economic stability than N1,500 today and N1,300 tomorrow,” Dare said, arguing that transport fares often rise when petrol prices increase but rarely fall by the same margin when fuel becomes cheaper.
The Presidency also listed other measures introduced by the administration, including a state-backed strategic energy reserve, accelerated deployment of compressed natural gas (CNG), naira-for-crude supply arrangements for domestic refineries, windfall taxes on energy operators and enforcement of the 2025 tax reform laws to eliminate illegal road levies.
Dare said CNG was 60 to 70 per cent cheaper than petrol, while proceeds from windfall taxes would be directed towards transport vouchers and minimum-wage support.
He maintained that the removal of petrol subsidy and unification of the exchange rate had ended a multi-trillion-naira drain on public funds, with the savings now reflected in Federation Account Allocation Committee distributions to states and local governments.
The Presidency also claimed that fuel queues had been eliminated and the gap between the official and parallel exchange rates had closed.
Responding to Atiku’s reported description of Tinubu as a “dull student,” Dare said, “It is sheer absurdity that a man who graduated from a school of hygiene dares to call a first-class accounting graduate a dull student.”
He added that “the Nigerian electorate is far too sophisticated to trade long-term national economic security for Atiku’s shallow, short-term demagoguery.”