Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has hit back at President Bola Tinubu, describing his criticism of Atiku’s proposed intervention in the petroleum sector as evidence of an administration that mistakes Nigerians’ ability to endure hardship for proof that its economic policies are working.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Tinubu’s criticism was misplaced, arguing that government revenues had increased while citizens’ purchasing power had declined.

Shaibu said the administration had triggered simultaneous fuel-price, exchange-rate and cost-of-living shocks, leaving millions of Nigerians poorer.

“That is not reform. It is economic arson followed by propaganda about the ashes,” he said.

He argued that increased Federation Account Allocation Committee revenues could not compensate households and businesses for rising costs.

“A government that grows richer while its citizens grow poorer is not reforming an economy. It is extracting from its people,” Shaibu said.

Atiku also defended his petroleum-sector proposal, saying it was not a return to an open-ended subsidy regime but a targeted, capped, budgeted and time-bound production-support mechanism tied to domestic production and subject to independent auditing.

He said economic policies must respond to prevailing conditions, arguing that the circumstances that informed previous prescriptions had changed significantly under the Tinubu administration.

According to Atiku, the removal of petrol subsidy triggered sharp increases in fuel, transport and production costs, while the naira’s depreciation and rising food prices further weakened household purchasing power.

“That is not inconsistency. That is economics. Only incompetence insists on yesterday’s prescription after today’s conditions have changed,” he said.

Atiku further questioned the administration’s claim that subsidy had been completely eliminated, citing what he described as about ₦17.5tn in energy-security costs and petroleum under-recoveries in NNPC’s audited accounts.
He asked why under-recoveries remained if subsidy had been abolished and questioned whether the reform had eliminated the opacity associated with petroleum-sector costs.

“Tinubu has given Nigerians the worst of both worlds: he removed the relief but retained the opaque costs. Nigerians got the pain; government kept the bill,” Atiku said.

He also criticised the President’s argument that one benefit of subsidy removal was that states that previously struggled to pay salaries were now receiving larger FAAC allocations.

Atiku argued that increasing allocations to state governments without addressing structural weaknesses in their economies could deepen dependence on the Federal Government.

“You do not build a federation by impoverishing citizens so that Abuja can send bigger cheques to governors. That is robbing households to subsidise governments,” he said.

He urged states to develop competitive economies, attract investment, broaden their productive tax bases and create wealth instead of relying increasingly on monthly allocations from the centre.

Atiku also renewed his call for clarification of about ₦30tn in Federation Account revenues, deductions, savings and transfers, as well as the ₦12.8tn Service-Wide Vote in the 2026 budget.

He challenged the Presidency to provide explanations on the figures, arguing that questions about fiscal transparency should receive the same attention as political criticism.

Atiku said the increase in government revenue should not be celebrated as an economic success if it coincided with declining living standards for ordinary Nigerians.

“Economic reform is not measured by how fat government accounts become while citizens grow poorer. An economy exists to serve human beings, not family and friends,” he said.