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ABUJA, Nigeria (September 11, 2026) — Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has proposed subsidising crude oil supplied to Nigerian refineries as a way to lower petrol prices if he wins the 2027 presidential election, framing the plan as a production-side alternative to the consumption subsidy scrapped by President Bola Tinubu’s administration in 2023.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), outlined the proposal, part of what his campaign calls the Atiku Economic Recovery Plan (AERP) 2027, in a statement issued through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu. Under the plan, qualifying refineries would receive Nigerian crude at preferential prices, subject to verified production and domestic supply requirements, allowing them to produce petrol and diesel more cheaply and, in turn, sell it to consumers at lower pump prices.

“Import subsidy spends public money supporting petrol refined abroad and brought into Nigeria. Production subsidy supports crude refined here in Nigeria so that Nigerian refineries can produce fuel more cheaply and Nigerians can pay less,” Atiku said.

He was explicit in distinguishing the proposal from the pre-2023 subsidy regime, saying the shift would move support “from importation to production, from middlemen to Nigerian refineries, and from unverifiable claims to verifiable barrels.” He said refineries receiving subsidised crude would be required to supply independently verified volumes of petroleum products to the domestic market under a transparent pricing formula, with allocation, refinery intake, production yields, inventories, and deliveries reconciled to trace every subsidised barrel from source to consumer. “If you receive subsidised Nigerian crude, you must refine it in Nigeria, supply the agreed products to Nigerians and pass the benefit to Nigerians,” he said, adding that the model would be capped, budgeted, and independently audited, with sanctions for operators found diverting crude or manipulating records.

ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi and Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, have separately elaborated on the mechanics, saying government support would cover the gap between a guaranteed threshold price for domestically supplied crude and prevailing market rates, effectively subsidising the cost of production rather than fixing the retail pump price. Abdullahi cited the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation under the Petroleum Industry Act as existing legal grounds for requiring oil producers to make crude available for local use. Ibe described the intervention as temporary, intended to give Nigerians and businesses room to recover economically before being phased out, while stressing it was not a return to what he called the old, opaque subsidy system. Both aides said Atiku’s broader economic agenda also includes efforts to diversify the economy away from oil dependence.

Atiku has also used the proposal to renew criticism of the Tinubu administration’s 2023 subsidy removal, pointing to NNPCL financial statements showing ₦4.84 trillion in “Energy Security Expenses” in 2023 and ₦7.13 trillion in 2024, and calling for a month-by-month reconciliation of related expenditures he put at roughly ₦30 trillion, arguing Nigerians bore the immediate cost of higher fuel prices without adequate transparency on subsequent petroleum-related spending.

Presidency Rejects the Plan

The proposal has drawn direct criticism from the presidency. Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, rejected the plan in a post on his X account, arguing that selling federation-owned crude to domestic refiners below market value would immediately cut government revenue and create funding shortfalls across the three tiers of government. He warned that granting selected refiners preferential crude access could create artificial monopolies, disadvantage smaller indigenous modular refineries, and run counter to the deregulation framework established under the Petroleum Industry Act.

Dare also raised concerns about renewed fuel smuggling, arguing that any resulting gap between Nigerian pump prices and those in neighbouring West African countries would fuel cross-border arbitrage. “Any regime that creates a wide gap between Nigerian pump prices and neighbouring West African markets guarantees a return of cross-border fuel arbitrage,” he said, describing Atiku’s proposal as “an economic safari” and “applying painkillers to a festering wound.” President Tinubu had separately characterized the broader push to restore fuel subsidy as evidence of “serious ignorance on governance and economy.”

Atiku, for his part, has argued that Nigeria has sufficient resources to protect citizens’ welfare through the proposed intervention. The dispute adds to a broader, ongoing political fight over fuel pricing and the legacy of the 2023 subsidy removal ahead of the 2027 election, with Atiku positioning the issue as central to his economic pitch and the presidency defending the current deregulated framework as necessary for fiscal stability.

This is a developing story.