Tinubu’s fuel subsidy removal is economic apartheid – Atiku tackles Presidency

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and former Vice President, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s removal of the fuel subsidy in 2023 is a classic example of economic apartheid.

Atiku disclosed this in a statement by his media team on Sunday amid the ongoing tit-for-tat with President Tinubu’s government over fuel subsidy.

Recall that Tinubu’s administration had recently accounted for N15.8 trillion in fuel subsidy savings over the last three years.

However, Atiku had proposed a return to a peculiar fuel subsidy regime if elected in 2027.

The presidency, however, insisted that the former vice president did not mean well for Nigeria over his fuel subsidy promise.

Reacting in a fresh statement, Atiku said Tinubu did not remove the fuel subsidy but rather took the palliative from the poor and gave it to his rich friends.

He accused Tinubu’s government of propaganda, saying it collapses under the weight of its own policies.

“Tinubu stood at Eagle Square and declared that subsidy was gone. This is the fraud at the heart of Tinubunomics. That is not reform; it is an upside-down economy. You cannot subsidise capital and criminalise relief for citizens. You cannot offer cushions upstairs and call suffering downstairs reform. That is not economic reform. It is classic economic apartheid,” he stated.

DAILY POST reports that President Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy in May 2023, which led to a sharp increase in petrol prices.