Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s latest promise to work with state governors to reduce public transport fares, describing it as a belated attempt to address the cost-of-living crisis.
Mr Atiku said the administration’s plan was coming after more than three years of economic hardship triggered by the removal of fuel subsidy, arguing that Nigerians needed cheaper fuel and lower living costs rather than what he described as last-minute transport promises.
The former vice president’s position was contained in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
He also faulted the Federal Government’s CNG conversion programme, saying the conversion of about 120,000 vehicles represented less than one per cent of the estimated 14 million vehicles on Nigerian roads.
According to him, the figure being celebrated by the government was evidence of what he described as the failure of the Tinubu administration’s economic policies.
“If Tinubu’s grand strategy for cushioning the consequences of his reckless and poorly thought-out subsidy removal is CNG conversion, then the admission that only about 120,000 vehicles have been converted in more than three years is not an achievement.
“It is an advertisement of policy failure,” Atiku said.
He added that against widely cited estimates of about 14 million vehicles in Nigeria, the 120,000 conversions represented less than one per cent.
“That is the government’s own number. That is Tinubu marking his own examination script,” he said.
Atiku compared the figure with an examination result, saying no examination body or university would consider a score of less than one per cent in a core subject as evidence of progress.
“Yet Tinubu wants Nigerians to reward the political equivalent of that catastrophic score with another four years.
“The truth is simple: Nigeria cannot afford another four years of monumental failure,” he said.
The former vice president also took exception to President Tinubu’s argument that cheaper fuel should translate into cheaper transport fares.
According to Atiku, the statement amounted to an admission that the administration’s energy policies had failed to address the realities confronting Nigerians.
“For more than three years, Nigerians begged this government for relief. Tinubu removed subsidy without a credible cushioning framework, watched transport costs explode, watched food prices follow, watched businesses suffocate under crushing energy costs, and repeatedly told Nigerians that their suffering was the unavoidable price of reform,” he said.
Atiku further alleged that the government had only begun to focus on transport affordability because of the approaching 2027 elections and what he described as growing support for his proposal for a production-based subsidy.
He said the administration had previously criticised his proposal but was now adopting some of its underlying principles.
“Now that elections are approaching, and Nigerians are rallying behind Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s proposal for a production-based subsidy to immediately tackle the cost-of-living crisis created by Tinubu, the same government that ridiculed and criticised Atiku’s plan has suddenly discovered that Nigerians need cheaper transportation,” he said.
“This is medicine after death.
“You cannot break a man’s leg, abandon him in pain for three and a half years, then return with crutches and demand applause for compassion.
