Fayemi: Atiku’s petrol subsidy proposal is equivalent to APC Muslim-Muslim ticket strategy
Former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, has described Atiku Abubakar’s proposal to restore petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027 as a political strategy rather than an economic policy.
Fayemi made the remark during an interview with Arise TV on Monday, where he compared Atiku’s proposal with the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket adopted by President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2023 election.
“My take is that Atiku’s proposal on subsidy is the political equivalent of our own Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023. It’s a political strategy. It’s not an economic construct,” Fayemi said.
Atiku, a former vice-president, had said he would restore petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027. He also accused the federal government of failing to account for savings from subsidy removal, arguing that the funds should have been used to address poverty and finance development.
President Tinubu criticised Atiku’s proposal, describing it as evidence of “serious ignorance” of governance and the economy.
Atiku, however, rejected the criticism, explaining that his proposal was not a return to the former subsidy regime but a targeted, capped, budgeted and independently audited intervention to support domestic production.
Fayemi said Atiku’s proposal could appeal to Nigerians struggling with the effects of subsidy removal and the broader economic hardship.
“But understandably, it is a political strategy that will sell with those who are hard done by the impact of fuel subsidy removal,” he said.
The former governor maintained that he supported the removal of petrol subsidy and had advocated an end to the policy for years. However, he criticised the manner in which the policy was implemented under the Tinubu administration.
According to Fayemi, the major weakness was the failure to put adequate measures in place to cushion the impact of subsidy removal on vulnerable Nigerians.
He said the Nigerian Governors’ Forum had worked with the federal government and the World Bank to develop a safety-net strategy for Nigerians expected to be most affected by the policy.
“What President Tinubu inherited, in fairness to him, was the work that had already been completed by that [Buhari] administration. The only challenge it had was the way it was done,” Fayemi said.
Fayemi said Atiku was taking advantage of the continued hardship faced by vulnerable Nigerians, who, he noted, were more concerned about improving their living conditions than the technical arguments surrounding subsidy removal.
He said poor Nigerians wanted to be able to afford basic necessities, feed their families, send their children to school and cope with health challenges.
Fayemi therefore likened Atiku’s approach to the APC’s decision to field a Muslim-Muslim ticket in 2023, saying both strategies were designed to appeal to specific voter concerns and maximise electoral support.
