Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesperson for former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s 2027 presidential campaign, has defended the candidate’s proposal to restore petrol subsidy, saying the plan is designed to make fuel more affordable for Nigerians and does not seek a return to the subsidy regime of the past.
Okonkwo, a former spokesperson for the Labour Party, made the clarification while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), had recently promised to reintroduce petrol subsidy if elected in 2027. The proposal has generated controversy, particularly because of his previous position in support of subsidy removal during the 2023 presidential election.
Atiku has also criticised the administration of President Bola Tinubu over the management of funds saved following the removal of the subsidy.
Tinubu, however, dismissed Atiku’s proposal, describing it as evidence of what he called “serious ignorance of governance and economy.” The President argued that the former subsidy regime imposed a significant financial burden on the country.
But Okonkwo said Atiku’s proposal, known as the Atiku Fuel Affordability Plan (AFAP), was fundamentally different from the old subsidy system.
“The whole idea of the Atiku plan is affordability of fuel to the ordinary Nigerian,” he said.
He accused Tinubu of misunderstanding the proposal, saying: “It is ignorance of Tinubu to say that Atiku wants to go back to the subsidy of the old.”
According to him, the plan is based on increased domestic refining and government intervention to ensure that local refineries have access to crude oil at affordable prices.
He explained that supplying crude to domestic refineries at a fair price would reduce production costs and ultimately bring down the price of petrol for consumers.
“He said, ‘I will supply the needed crude to our local refineries at a price that will be fair enough for them to use to produce the fuel at a reduced and affordable price to Nigerians,’” Okonkwo said.
He argued that Nigeria would not have needed the old petrol subsidy system if successive governments had developed sufficient domestic refining capacity and ensured adequate fuel supply.
According to him, the former system became vulnerable to corruption because Nigeria depended heavily on imported petrol.
“This was the way the subsidy of the old operated. They were importing 100 per cent of the fuel. We didn’t have any refinery,” he said.
Okonkwo alleged that the arrangement created opportunities for manipulation of fuel import volumes and prices, leaving Nigerians to bear the cost.
He nevertheless maintained that Atiku’s proposal was not a plan to revive that system.
“Atiku is not going back to that and cannot even go back to that,” he said.