Senator Abdulaziz Yari, representing Zamfara West and Director-General of the APC 2027 Presidential Campaign Council, has dismissed promises to restore petrol subsidy, saying politicians making such pledges are misleading Nigerians.
Yari, a former Zamfara State governor, spoke on Saturday when members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) paid him a courtesy visit.
His comments followed Atiku Abubakar’s promise to introduce a targeted fuel subsidy if elected president in 2027. Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, has argued that the government has not adequately accounted for the savings from the removal of the subsidy.
Yari said restoring the former subsidy regime would be difficult, arguing that there was no provision for petrol subsidy in the 2023 budget passed by the National Assembly before President Bola Tinubu took office.
“Anybody who is deceiving Nigerians, saying I’m going to bring this thing back, he’s lying to himself; he is lying to Nigerians.”
The APC campaign council DG also questioned the huge sums previously spent on fuel subsidy and said there had been concerns over Nigeria’s actual daily petrol consumption.
Yari said the issue had previously been raised with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) while he served as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
“As chairman governors forum, we challenged NNPC for four years to tell us the exact consumption.”
According to him, officials had presented different figures for fuel consumption, while governors repeatedly sought clarification on the actual volume being consumed.
Yari said the APC would focus its 2027 campaign on the achievements and plans of the Tinubu administration rather than attacking opposition politicians.
He said the party would present “facts and figures” about what the government had achieved and what it plans to accomplish in the future.
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu is doing his best, and we believe he’s the right man for this job again.”
Source: Abdulaziz Yari / APC.
