By His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, GCON
Fellow Nigerians,
Since May 29, 2023, Nigerians have lived with the consequences of the removal of petrol subsidy without adequate protection for families, workers, farmers and businesses during the transition.
For more than three years, that burden has travelled from the petrol station to the bus stop, from the bus stop to the market, and from the market to the family dining table.
When petrol becomes expensive, transportation becomes expensive. When transportation becomes expensive, food becomes expensive. Farmers pay more to move produce. Traders pay more to stock their shops. Workers pay more to get to work. Businesses pay more for logistics and energy.
In the end, the Nigerian family receives the bill.
When government makes energy expensive, it makes life expensive.
This is no longer an argument between economists. It is the daily reality of millions of Nigerians.
These are the real tests of an economic policy.
When I first argued that government should review its approach to the withdrawal of petrol subsidy and consider responsible intervention to bring down the cost of fuel, Mr. Bola Tinubu dismissed my proposal as demonstrating “serious ignorance” of governance and the economy.
My dear Bola, events since then have raised a simple question.
Is the Nigeria Labour Congress also ignorant when it calls for urgent intervention to cushion workers from rising petrol prices?
Are petroleum marketers ignorant when they call for policies that strengthen domestic refining and help moderate pump prices?
Are Nigerian manufacturers ignorant when they warn that power-related expenses now consume more than half of operating costs?
And are the millions of Nigerians crying out because they can no longer afford transportation, food and other basic necessities also ignorant?
When workers, producers, marketers and ordinary families are all raising the alarm, government must listen.
If everybody who questions your policy is ignorant, while only the President is presumed to be wise, then we have a leadership problem on our hands.
Leadership requires the humility to confront the consequences of policy and the courage to change course.
Across our factories, production costs are rising while unsold goods pile up in warehouses. Manufacturers struggle to keep producing; families struggle to afford what they produce.
The goods are there. The need is there. What is missing is the purchasing power.
Government celebrates GDP growth, higher revenues and bigger allocations. But Nigerians judge the economy by what their money can buy.
If government receives more naira while the citizen’s naira buys less food, less fuel, less electricity and less transportation, then bigger government revenues mean little to the family struggling to survive.
Economic growth must enter the home.
It must enter the market basket.
It must show up in the purchasing power of the worker.
A government collecting more money while its citizens can afford less cannot declare victory on the strength of bigger numbers alone.
Reform must ultimately be judged by what it does to the lives of the people. It should expand production, create opportunity and improve living standards. It cannot become an endless explanation for hardship.
That is why I am calling on Mr. Bola Tinubu to act now.
He has approximately eight months remaining in office.
Bola, I want you to Use those 8months to give Nigerians relief.
And let me say this plainly:
Bola Tinubu should not be ashamed to do what is necessary to lower the price of petrol simply because Atiku Abubakar proposed a government intervention.
He should just take the idea.
Rename it if he wishes
And even take the credit.
What matters to me is that, Nigerians pay less.
A sensible idea does not become a bad idea because it came from your opponent.
