Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has fired back at President Bola Tinubu after the presidency attacked his proposed petroleum-sector intervention, with Atiku's camp accusing the administration of setting off an economic crisis and then demanding credit for surviving it.
The response, dated August 21, 2026, was issued by Phrank Shaibu, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku Abubakar.
Atiku Camp Challenges Tinubu's Economic Record
Shaibu said Tinubu's decision to scrap the fuel subsidy at Eagle Square amounted to what he called "economic vandalism by presidential fiat," arguing the move triggered a cascade of rising petrol prices, transport costs, food inflation and naira depreciation with no credible safety net for ordinary Nigerians.
"Tinubu's courtiers may clap because FAAC allocations have increased, but hungry Nigerians cannot boil FAAC figures for dinner," Shaibu said. "A government that grows richer while its citizens grow poorer is not reforming an economy. It is extracting from its people," he added.
Atiku's camp also questioned what exactly the administration had removed, pointing to roughly ₦17.5 trillion in figures that reportedly appear in NNPC's audited accounts, including about ₦7.13 trillion classified as Energy Security costs and ₦8.67 trillion in under-recoveries.
"If subsidy is dead, why are under-recoveries alive?" Shaibu wrote. "Tinubu has given Nigerians the worst of both worlds: he removed the relief but retained the opaque costs."
Atiku Defends His Petroleum Proposal
On the specific proposal Tinubu criticised, Shaibu said Atiku was not calling for a return to the old, open-ended subsidy arrangement. Instead, he described it as a targeted, capped, time-bound and independently audited production-support mechanism tied to domestic output and designed to prevent the kind of arbitrage that plagued earlier regimes.
"Tinubu pronounced first and searched for a plan afterwards. Atiku studied the consequences and produced a solution," Shaibu wrote.
The statement also challenged the administration's argument that larger monthly FAAC transfers to states were a sign of progress, calling it "fiscal sedation" that rewards governors for waiting on Abuja rather than building productive local economies.
"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," Shaibu said.
Demands for Fiscal Accountability
Atiku's camp closed by demanding the presidency answer specific fiscal questions, including the reconciliation of roughly ₦30 trillion in Federation Account revenues and an explanation of the ₦12.8 trillion Service-Wide Vote in the 2026 budget.
"Tinubu removed the subsidy from Nigerians' pockets, but he is yet to remove the questions from his books," Shaibu wrote. "Nigerians have paid enough for Tinubunomics."
Previously, Legit.ng reported that President Bola Tinubu's Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, challenged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over his promise to bring back fuel subsidies if he wins the 2027 presidential election, saying the proposal is fiscally irresponsible and legally problematic. In a statement released on Thursday, August 20, Onanuga said Atiku's plan contradicts the former vice president's own earlier position.
