2027: Atiku’s subsidy promise is like Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket strategy – Fayemi
2027: Atiku’s subsidy promise is like Tinubu’s Muslim-Muslim ticket strategy – Fayemi
By Ndukaku Ihe
Former Ekiti State Governor and former Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has described former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s promise to restore fuel subsidy if elected president in 2027 as a political strategy designed to exploit Nigerians’ economic hardship.
Fayemi, who spoke on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Monday, drew a parallel between Atiku’s subsidy pledge and the decision by President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to field a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in the 2023 election.
According to him, while the subsidy proposal may appeal to Nigerians struggling with the consequences of its removal, it should be understood primarily as an electoral strategy rather than an economic solution.
“Frankly, my take on Atiku’s proposal on subsidy is that it 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.
He explained that Atiku’s proposal could resonate with Nigerians severely affected by the economic hardship following the removal of the fuel subsidy, particularly those more concerned with daily survival than the technical arguments surrounding the subsidy.
Fayemi, however, maintained that he had consistently supported the removal of fuel subsidy, saying the policy itself was necessary but should have been accompanied by adequate measures to protect vulnerable Nigerians.
“I was, and I remain an advocate of full subsidy removal,” he said, adding that he had spent four years working on the issue while serving as chairman of a government programme.
The former governor said President Tinubu inherited work that had already been done on subsidy removal, although he acknowledged that the manner in which the policy was implemented remained a subject of concern.
His major criticism, he said, was the failure to implement a comprehensive safety-net programme that had been developed to cushion the impact of subsidy removal on vulnerable Nigerians.
Fayemi disclosed that the Nigerian Governors’ Forum had worked with the Federal Government and the World Bank on a safety-net strategy designed to protect the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population from the consequences of subsidy removal.
“That is what fell through,” he said.
According to him, this failure has created political space for opposition politicians such as Atiku to present subsidy restoration as an answer to the economic difficulties facing Nigerians.
Fayemi said most Nigerians were not necessarily interested in the technical details of subsidy removal but wanted government policies that would enable them to meet their basic needs.
“They just want to live reasonably well, be able to eat, have one or two meals a day, be able to send their kids to school, not be taken in by sickness or anything that might create further problems for them,” he said.
He further linked poverty and inequality to some of the security challenges confronting Nigeria, including insurgency and banditry.
Fayemi also disclosed that a technical committee involving government officials, governors and organised labour had worked on a plan to mitigate the consequences of subsidy removal.
He added that the committee included himself, former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, Gombe State Governor Muhammadu Yahaya and the two major trade union presidents.
According to him, the committee produced a report containing measures for cushioning the effect of subsidy removal, but the recommendations were eventually abandoned.
Fayemi stressed that he was no longer in government when the subsidy was eventually removed and therefore could not speak authoritatively on what happened to the committee’s recommendations.
