Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has described the continued rise in petrol prices despite softer crude prices as further evidence that President Bola Tinubu’s economic experiment has become a conveyor belt transferring pain from government policy directly into Nigerian homes.

In a statement by Phrank Shaibu, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president said the response from Mr Tinubu’s aides has become predictable: whenever Nigerians complain about the cost of living, the Presidency produces frightening arithmetic to justify why citizens must continue suffering rather than explaining what its reforms have actually delivered.

“The latest trick is the claim that Atiku’s targeted intervention will cost ₦22 trillion. That figure is not Atiku’s policy. It is Villa arithmetic built on Villa assumptions. They selected their own pump price, subsidy rate and financing model, multiplied their assumptions and then presented the result as Atiku’s bill.

“That is not economic analysis. It is arithmetic vandalism. Atiku has never proposed an unlimited resurrection of the import-subsidy racket. His proposal is targeted, capped, appropriated, transparent and independently audited, tied to domestic production and measurable consumer benefit. Its precise parameters must reflect actual production and the fiscal space ”

Atiku said the irony is particularly striking because while the Presidency is quick to manufacture a ₦22 trillion bill for an opposition policy, it has yet to provide the detailed public reconciliation he has demanded for nearly ₦30 trillion in Federation revenues, deductions, savings and transfers identified from published FAAC figures.

Atiku had earlier challenged the administration to reconcile those figures transparently, after his analysis put the cumulative amount requiring explanation at nearly ₦30 trillion by July 2026.

“If Aso Rock has suddenly discovered a calculator, Nigerians would like it applied to the Federation Account too. Before inventing trillions for Atiku, account clearly for the trillions collected, deducted, saved and transferred under Tinubu.

“The question remains painfully simple: with government revenues substantially higher, why are ordinary Nigerians still being crushed by food, transportation and energy costs? Where is the prosperity that supposedly followed subsidy removal?”

Atiku said Nigerians are already paying very real bills while presidential aides debate imaginary ones. Vanguard reported that MRS increased petrol from ₦1,205 to ₦1,310 per litre, with other marketers selling between ₦1,315 and above ₦1,400, even as crude prices declined from about $92 to $87.31 per barrel. The newspaper said prices appeared headed towards ₦1,500 per litre.

“At ₦1,500 per litre, 20 litres would cost ₦30,000. That is not an abstract figure on an economist’s spreadsheet. That is money disappearing from a family’s feeding allowance.

“The tomato farmer in Plateau pays more to move produce. The truck driver adds his fuel cost. The Mile 12 trader adds transportation. The neighbourhood market woman adds hers. By the time a mother buys tomatoes for stew, she is paying for every kilometre Tinubu made more expensive.

“The same mathematics follows bread from the bakery, garri from the farm, a child into a school bus and a worker into a commercial vehicle. The barber running a generator and the vulcaniser keeping his shop open feel it too. Petrol enters the Nigerian pocket long before the Nigerian enters a filling station.”

Atiku said the timing of President Tinubu’s three-week European vacation makes the contrast even more troubling. The Presidency confirmed that Tinubu departed Abuja on August 30 for a three-week vacation in Europe, beginning in London.

“The President is constitutionally entitled to annual leave. But leadership also has optics, timing and responsibility. At the very moment petrol prices are surging, families are struggling to feed, businesses are battling higher energy costs and insecurity remains a daily fear, Nigerians watch their President leave for three weeks in Europe.

“Millions of Nigerians can no longer afford ordinary journeys within their own country. A worker thinks twice before travelling home because transport fare competes with food money. A trader postpones visiting relatives because moving from Lagos to Benin now threatens the household budget. Yet the man presiding over this cost-of-living crisis can still leave Abuja for London while Nigerians remain trapped at home by the economy he created.

“That is the painful symbolism of Tinubu’s Nigeria: the President can afford to leave; millions of Nigerians can barely afford to move.

“The issue is not that a President takes leave. The issue is that a country in distress increasingly sees a government insulated from the consequences of its own policies. Nigerians sacrifice while government travels, spends and lectures them about patience.”

Atiku said this is why his alternative begins not with government revenue but with household purchasing power.

“The argument is not between reform and irresponsibility. It is between a reform that transfers every economic shock to the citizen and an alternative that asks how Nigeria’s resources can reduce production costs, transportation costs and the cost of living without restoring the corruption of the past.

“You cannot make transportation expensive, make food expensive, make energy expensive and then distribute rice as evidence that your economic policy works. You cannot break a man’s leg and demand applause because you brought him a crutch.

“The ₦22 trillion scarecrow will not reduce one bus fare or put one extra measure of garri in a family’s bowl. Nigerians do not live inside the Presidency’s calculator. They live in markets, buses, farms, workshops and kitchens where Tinubu’s policies confront them every day.

“A country in distress cannot be governed like a tourist itinerary. Tinubu made Nigeria expensive. Atiku will make Nigeria affordable again.”

Phrank Shaibu
Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar. Vice President of Nigeria 1999-2007 and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress.
30th August, 2026