ABUJA, Nigeria – The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council has challenged former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON, to provide a comprehensive legal, fiscal, and operational explanation for his proposed “production subsidy” on locally refined premium motor spirit, warning that the intervention could drain up to ₦21 trillion annually from the Federation Account and trigger a devastating fiscal crisis across all three tiers of government, political and energy correspondents confirmed in Abuja on Sunday, September 20, 2026.
The challenge follows a press conference addressed by the former vice president in Abuja on Friday, where he reiterated his campaign blueprint to subsidize domestic crude oil feedstock to drive down retail pump prices, calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to slash the prices of petrol and automotive gas oil across filling stations nationwide.
Okay News reports that in an extensive policy statement signed by the spokesman of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Alake, the ruling party contended that Atiku’s proposal directly contravenes statutory market provisions outlined in Section 205(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, which stipulates that unrestricted free-market conditions shall determine wholesale and retail pricing.
The council emphasized that the statutory pricing authority, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, had already clarified that it does not fix administrative price templates unless specific statutory conditions for market failure are met, with the regulator confirming that no such market failure has been declared.
Pressing for operational clarity, the APC-PCC challenged Atiku to clarify whether beneficiary private refineries would be compelled by administrative fiat to sell refined products at government-mandated price caps, noting that without an enforceable legal framework, public subsidies would simply enrich refining corporations while retail consumers continue to pay prevailing international market rates.
“If the answer is yes, he should identify the legal framework under which the government would impose that price condition and explain how it would operate consistently with the Petroleum Industry Act,” Alake stated. “If the answer is no, he should explain how public support to refiners would guarantee lower prices at filling stations. Without an enforceable mechanism, refiners could receive the benefit while consumers continued to pay market prices.”
The campaign council warned that any discounted allocation of domestic crude oil would drastically reduce gross federation revenue, severely diminishing statutory monthly allocations to the federal, state, and local governments, threatening a return to the structural insolvencies that left 27 state governments incapable of paying civil service salaries and pensions prior to the inauguration of President Tinubu’s administration in 2023.
Citing industry throughput and domestic consumption benchmarks, the ruling party estimated that Atiku’s subsidy proposal would cost between ₦17 trillion and ₦21 trillion annually, demanding that the former vice president disclose the proposed subsidy rate, annual spending ceiling, covered crude volumes, funding sources, and legislative amendments required under the Petroleum Industry Act.
The APC-PCC further accused Atiku of policy inconsistency, recalling that during an address at the Lagos Business School in November 2022, he had described the petrol subsidy regime as fraudulent and pledged to complete its total elimination, only to declare on social media platform X on August 25, 2026, that he would restore it.
Contrasting Atiku’s proposal with executive economic strategy, the council argued that the Tinubu administration has prioritized sustainable, lower-cost mass transit through the nationwide rollout of Compressed Natural Gas and electric mobility programs, which have converted over 120,000 vehicles and slashed public transit fares by 31 to 83 per cent across seven states and the Federal Capital Territory ahead of an expanded relief framework taking effect on October 1.
Dismissing the opposition proposal as an uncosted scheme that would revive cross-border fuel smuggling and racketeering, the council maintained that Nigeria’s deregulated downstream market has already unlocked private capital investments, citing the Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s 650,000-barrel-per-day operations and ongoing ₦2.15 trillion initial public offering as evidence of irreversible industrial growth.
