The President, National Association of Nigerian Students, Akinteye Afeez, has described former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s promise to restore fuel subsidy as a “desperate political statement” lacking a sustainable economic framework.

Afeez admitted that while the removal of fuel subsidy had imposed significant hardship on Nigerians through increased transportation and food costs, returning to the old system would amount to reversing a difficult but necessary economic reform.

Reacting to Atiku’s proposal, the NANS president, in a statement he personally signed on Wednesday, said the subsidy regime had consumed trillions of naira, disproportionately benefited heavy fuel consumers, encouraged smuggling and constrained government investment in critical sectors.

“The removal of the fuel subsidy was a difficult but necessary economic reform aimed at ending an increasingly unsustainable system that consumed trillions of naira,” he said.

Afeez argued that the focus should instead be on ensuring that resources freed from subsidy payments are channelled into education, healthcare, infrastructure, agriculture and other areas that directly improve citizens’ welfare.

According to him, Nigerians should not allow the immediate pain of economic reforms to undermine the need for long-term restructuring.

“We must not allow the immediate pain of reform to make us abandon the need for reform itself. Rather, we must demand that the government prudently deploy the resources freed by subsidy removal to improve the lives of Nigerians,” he said.

He said Atiku’s proposal, without a clear framework for addressing the structural weaknesses that made subsidy unsustainable, amounted to a political response to a genuine economic problem.

The NANS president urged political aspirants to present policies capable of addressing Nigeria’s immediate challenges while also building a sustainable economic future.

He maintained that his position was not partisan but based on what he described as the long-term interests of the country.

Afeez further challenged Atiku to reconsider the subsidy proposal, arguing that Nigeria could not afford to return to a system that, in his view, contributed to fiscal pressure and limited the government’s capacity to invest in development.

He said the sacrifices Nigerians were currently making should ultimately translate into tangible improvements in their living conditions and a stronger, more sustainable economy.