Atiku replies Tinubu on fuel subsidy: 'You are the Egypt Nigerians want to leave'
- Atiku Abubakar has answered President Bola Tinubu's Moses and Egypt comment on fuel subsidy.
- Through his campaign, Atiku said Tinubu's remark shows he does not grasp how hard life has become.
- Atiku promised limited support for fuel refined in Nigeria, and better pay for police officers.
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has hit back at President Bola Tinubu over the President's comment that asking Nigerians to return to the old fuel subsidy is like telling Moses to go back to Egypt.
In a statement issued on his behalf by Phrank Shaibu, director of strategic communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku said the President's remark showed he does not understand how much Nigerians are struggling.
The exchange centres on the removal of the fuel subsidy, which Tinubu has said he announced on his first day in office. Since then, petrol prices have risen sharply and transport and food costs have followed.
What Atiku said
Atiku described the President's account of the subsidy removal as a celebration of hardship. He said a mother feeding her children cannot pay for food with a metaphor, and a worker cannot get to work on a story about the Red Sea.
He said Nigerians want to know how the government plans to make life affordable, and asked the President to answer that question directly.
On his own plan, Atiku said he would give limited, budgeted support only to petroleum products refined in Nigeria and sold to Nigerians. Imported fuel would get nothing, and independent auditors would track every naira spent.
He said the benefit must show up in the price consumers pay, adding that if the price does not fall, the policy has failed.
Atiku also addressed security. He said the President's record should not be hidden behind that of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, and that Nigerians expect a president to confront killers, rescue people who have been abducted and make it possible to travel, farm and sleep without fear.
He referred to a retired Assistant Superintendent of Police who, he said, receives ₦29,000 a month, and said serving officers are drawing on their pension savings to feed their families. He asked the President to act on the Police Exit Bill and review officers' salaries, as was done for the Armed Forces.
"Tinubu made life expensive. I will make life affordable again," Atiku said in the statement.
What happens next
The comments come as the campaign season gathers pace, with the cost of living, fuel prices and security expected to dominate the debate. It is not clear how Atiku's proposed fuel support would be funded or when it would take effect.
