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By 247ureports.com
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has accused President Bola Tinubu of copying his production subsidy proposal while leaving out the parts that make it work, comparing the president to a “dull student who copied his classmate’s answer.”
The Remark
In comments attributed to Atiku, he said: “Bola, you are like a dull student who copied his classmate’s answer, you have done it so blindly that the classmate’s name is at the top of his exam paper and then demanded marks for original thinking. You copied my production subsidy proposal, nothing wrong about that. You stripped away the part that makes it work and handed Nigerians a 30-day discount. Where is the rest of the answer, Bola? You see why it is good to go to school.” 247ureports.com could not find this exact wording in published coverage, so it is reported as attributed. It is consistent with the position Atiku and his campaign have taken in several statements this week.
The Background: A 30-Day Discount
The federal government announced on Thursday, October 8, that NNPC retail stations would sell petrol at a discounted rate for an initial 30 days, with priority for public transport operators in a bid to curb rising fares. Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Taiwo Oyedele described the arrangement as selling petrol at cost price and insisted it was not a return to subsidy. Reports say the government has not specified the savings per litre or explained how the discount would translate into lower transport fares.
Atiku’s Case
In a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku called the measure “a panic-driven publicity stunt” and “a calendar-scheduled, election-laced subsidy package.” He said it was “not an economic plan but a political bandage on a wound the government had helped create,” and asked: “What happens on Day 31?”
He argued that the move proves his own proposal is workable. “This volte-face proves that the production-support proposal I have advanced is workable, achievable and not complicated,” he said, adding that the government and its “spin doctors” had tried to make the idea sound impossible before reaching for a temporary subsidy-style intervention. At the inauguration of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council in Abuja on Friday, he said Tinubu had adopted the principle behind his proposal after dismissing it, but without the safeguards. “Thirty days cannot erase three and a half years of hardship,” he said, and urged the president to resign.
Atiku’s plan is for capped, budgeted and independently audited support for petroleum products refined and sold in Nigeria, excluding imports, with safeguards to ensure consumers benefit. Reports note that the proposed subsidy rate, funding needs and mechanism for passing savings to consumers have yet to be fully explained.
The Other Side of the Argument
The Presidency previously challenged the fiscal and legal basis of Atiku’s proposal when he reaffirmed it in August, and the government maintains its discount is a temporary, cost-price measure rather than a subsidy. Political figures sympathetic to Atiku, including Timi Frank, have said the discount mirrors his proposal and that Tinubu should apologise. Neither the Presidency nor the Finance Ministry had publicly responded to the “copied answer” remark as of this report.
247ureports.com will update this story as the Presidency or the APC responds.
