APC Demands Atiku Explain Legal, Fiscal Basis Of His Petrol Subsidy Proposal
By Sunday Etuka
The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) has challenged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to explain the legal and fiscal foundation of his proposed “production subsidy” for locally refined petrol, days after he renewed the call at a press conference in Abuja and urged President Bola Tinubu to cut pump prices for petrol and diesel.
In a statement issued on Sunday by its spokesman, Dele Alake, the APC-PCC noted that Section 205(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 provides that unrestricted free-market conditions shall determine wholesale and retail prices of petroleum products.
It cited a Saturday statement from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, which said it neither fixes pump prices nor issues administrative price templates except where statutory conditions for intervention are met, and that no such market failure had been declared.
The campaign council said Atiku must clarify whether a refinery receiving his proposed subsidy would be required to sell petrol at a prescribed price. If so, it wants to know the legal framework for imposing that condition; if not, it questioned how public support to refiners would guarantee lower prices at filling stations, warning that refiners could pocket the benefit while consumers kept paying market rates.
The APC-PCC also pressed Atiku to disclose the cost of his proposal and its funding source. It noted that his earlier remarks suggested the intervention could involve preferentially priced crude for domestic refineries, a move it said would cut revenue accruing to the Federation and could trigger the kind of fiscal crisis that left 27 states unable to pay salaries and pensions before 2023.
Citing publicly reported refinery throughput and domestic petrol-supply figures, the campaign council estimated the new subsidy could cost as much as N17 trillion to N21 trillion annually, depending on the discount size, volume covered, and whether support applies to the whole barrel or only petrol sold domestically.
It listed seven questions it said Nigerians deserve answers to, including the proposed subsidy rate, annual spending ceiling, volume covered, funding source, enforcement mechanism, safeguards against diversion and smuggling, and whether the Petroleum Industry Act would need amendment.
The statement also contrasted Atiku’s current position with his past support for downstream deregulation, recalling that he described the subsidy system as fraudulent at a Lagos Business School event in November 2022 and pledged to complete its removal, only to announce on X on August 25, 2026 that he would restore it.
It traced deregulation history from diesel in 2003 through aviation fuel, kerosene in 2016, and petrol, whose subsidy was meant to end in June 2023 under the PIA.
The APC-PCC pointed instead to the Tinubu administration’s expansion of compressed natural gas and electric mass transit, saying more than 120,000 vehicles had been converted to CNG and that commuters in seven states and the FCT were paying between 31 and 83 per cent less on routes served by CNG and electric buses.
It cited examples from Borno, Niger, Kaduna, Adamawa and Abia states, and quoted President Tinubu’s Saturday statement that “from October 1, more Nigerians should begin to see measurable reductions in transportation costs.”
The council said Nigeria would continue with a deregulated market that has drawn investment into domestic refining, noting that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery has reached its 650,000 barrels-per-day nameplate capacity and launched a N2.1 trillion public offering for expansion.
It added that the NMDPRA was working with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission against price-gouging and with the Nigeria Customs Service against fuel smuggling.
The APC-PCC said any intervention in the downstream sector must be lawful, transparent, properly costed and capable of delivering measurable benefits to consumers, and called on Atiku to produce a detailed policy document with independent legal and fiscal analysis, describing his current proposal as an uncosted promise without a clear framework.
