By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has faulted the administration of President Bola Tinubu over the current pump price of petrol, noting that Nigerians are now paying as much as ₦1,470 per litre even though crude oil, at $102.52 per barrel, sells for far less than the $147 per barrel it fetched in 2008 when petrol sold for ₦65 per litre under the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of presiding over what he described as an organised system of grand larceny against the Nigerian people, built around opaque Federation Account FAAC deductions, questionable management of oil revenues, parallel funding arrangements and allegations of off-book transactions.
“With crude oil around $102.52 per barrel, Nigerians are paying as much as ₦1,470 per litre. In 2008, when crude oil reached about $147 per barrel, petrol sold at ₦65 per litre under the Yar’Adua administration. The difference is that government then understood that economic policy must ultimately protect the welfare of citizens,” he said.
The Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC said it is unconscionable for a government that has extracted unprecedented sacrifice from citizens in the name of subsidy removal to keep raising the cost of survival while refusing to provide a clear, verifiable account of the revenues, savings and deductions accumulated under its watch.
He recalled that Nigerians were told subsidy removal would free resources for education, healthcare, infrastructure and other essential services, yet nearly three and a half years later, fundamental questions remain unanswered about where the money has gone.
“Petrol at ₦1,470 per litre is not merely a figure at the filling station. It enters the price of transportation, food, school runs, farming, manufacturing and virtually everything Nigerians buy. Every increase at the pump travels directly into the household budget.
“After all the pain imposed on Nigerians, they have a right to ask: where are the subsidy savings and where is the money?”, he queried.
Atiku said official FAAC records themselves justify greater scrutiny, pointing out that in June 2025, gross Federation Account revenue was reported at ₦4.232 trillion while only ₦1.818 trillion was eventually distributed, with substantial sums categorised as cost of collection, transfers, interventions, refunds and savings.
He demanded a comprehensive reconciliation of Federation Account revenues from 2023 to date, showing gross collections, every deduction made before distribution, the statutory authority for each deduction, the receiving accounts and the ultimate beneficiaries.
“Nigerians deserve accounts they can interrogate, not accounting labels designed to discourage questions,” he said.
The former Vice President also called for full disclosure around the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund, OML 143, oil-production revenues, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company NNPC’s international Liquefied Natural Gas LNG trading operations, offshore corporate structures and allegations involving unofficial crude lifting, maritime surveillance contracts and other possible off-book revenue flows.
“These allegations are too serious to be answered with press statements and political insults. Every barrel can be measured, every cargo identified and every legitimate payment traced. If everything is in order, publish the records and allow independent forensic auditors to reconcile them. If the allegations are false, the records will clear the government,” he said.
Atiku equally rejected attempts to use the current international crisis as a blanket excuse for rising domestic fuel prices, drawing attention to the widening gap between what Nigerians earn and what they now pay at the pump compared to other climes.
“At about $4.31 per gallon, U.S. petrol is roughly $1.14 per litre. Yet while the U.S. federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, Nigeria’s minimum wage is only ₦70,000 per month.
“Tinubu has brought Nigerians close to American fuel prices while leaving them with Nigerian poverty wages. That is the true cost of his subsidy-removal policy”, he said.
He insisted that the administration can no longer demand endless sacrifice from citizens while treating public accountability as optional.
“After all the oil, all the revenue, all the deductions and all the hardship, petrol is now ₦1,470 per litre. The question Tinubu must answer is simple: where are the savings, where are the revenues, and who is taking Nigeria’s money?”
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