Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is trying to retrieve his embarrassing gaffe over fuel subsidy. Recall that the presidential candidate of the Africa Democratic Party (ADC) said that he would return fuel subsidy policy if elected in 2027. That was a highly reckless statement; to make the matter worse, Atiku has said that on a live video on Facebook. So there is no way of withdrawing the words without looking very stupid before the public.
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And trust APC! Hardly had he said that than the ruling All Progressives Congress as well as the public descended on him with hot backlashes. FCT minister Nyesom Wike called Atiku a “confused” man. During an address at the Presidential Villa yesterday, President Tinubu hacked at the ADC flag-bearer for his “serious ignorance on economy”.
But Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, is trying to do some damage control on social media. He said that Atiku didn’t mean what he had said.
“The issue isn’t simply ‘subsidy or no subsidy.’ It is what kind of subsidy, who benefits, and how it is administered.
“Atiku is not proposing a return to the old import-subsidy racket. He is proposing a targeted, capped and auditable subsidy for domestic production: supporting Nigerian refining, not foreign imports and middlemen.
“So the real debate should be: Do we subsidise imports and consumption, or strategically support Nigerian production and jobs? Those are two fundamentally different economic choices,” Shaibu wrote on X.
But what Atiku himself has said the Nigerians have heard clearly. No interpretations are needed.