Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the administration of President Bola Tinubu over the current pump price of petrol, saying Nigerians are now paying as much as ₦1,470 per litre despite crude oil selling at $102.52 per barrel.
Atiku argued that the current fuel price was difficult to justify when compared with 2008, when crude oil reached about $147 per barrel but 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 Nigerians.
He alleged that the system was built around opaque Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) deductions, questionable management of oil revenues, parallel funding arrangements and alleged 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 was unacceptable for a government that had demanded unprecedented sacrifices from citizens through subsidy removal to continue increasing the cost of living without providing a clear and verifiable account of the revenues, savings and deductions accumulated under its watch.
He recalled that Nigerians were told the removal of petrol subsidy would free funds for education, healthcare, infrastructure and other essential services.
However, Atiku said almost three and a half years later, questions remain over how the savings from the policy have been utilised.
“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 available FAAC records also warrant closer examination, citing June 2025 figures in which gross Federation Account revenue was reported at ₦4.232 trillion, while only ₦1.818 trillion was eventually distributed.
He noted that significant amounts were classified under cost of collection, transfers, interventions, refunds and savings.
The former Vice President therefore demanded a comprehensive reconciliation of Federation Account revenues from 2023 to date.
According to him, the reconciliation should show gross revenue collected, every deduction made before distribution, the legal basis for each deduction, the accounts that received the funds and the final beneficiaries.
“Nigerians deserve accounts they can interrogate, not accounting labels designed to discourage questions,” he said.
Atiku also demanded full disclosure regarding the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund, OML 143, oil production revenues and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company’s (NNPC) international Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) trading operations.
He further called for transparency over offshore corporate structures and allegations relating to 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 also rejected attempts to blame the current international crisis broadly for the increase in domestic petrol prices.
He highlighted what he described as the widening disparity between Nigerians’ earnings and the amount they now pay for fuel when compared with consumers in other countries.
“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 maintained that the Federal Government could no longer demand continuous sacrifices from citizens while treating accountability over public funds 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?”
Source: Statement by Atiku Abubakar’s media office
