{"id":28110,"date":"2026-08-23T05:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T05:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/?p=28110"},"modified":"2026-08-23T05:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T05:47:12","slug":"atiku-accuses-tinubu-of-economic-arson-says-subsidy-removal-increased-pain-without-ending-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/?p=28110","title":{"rendered":"Atiku Accuses Tinubu of \u201cEconomic Arson\u201d, Says Subsidy Removal Increased Pain Without Ending Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>By Muhammad Baqeer Isa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of presiding over \u201ceconomic arson\u201d and handing Nigerians the bill for a subsidy regime he claimed to have removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a press statement issued on Friday, August 21, 2026, by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the Tinubu administration detonated simultaneous shocks in fuel price, exchange rate and cost of living without a credible transition plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHere is an administration that detonated simultaneous fuel-price, exchange-rate and cost-of-living shocks across a fragile economy, watched millions become poorer, and now struts around Abuja demanding applause for the wreckage,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat is not reform. It is economic arson followed by propaganda about the ashes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Atiku was responding to Tinubu\u2019s recent criticism of his proposed petroleum-sector intervention. He described Tinubu\u2019s attack as \u201cthe insolent sermon of a failed economic experimenter who mistakes Nigerians\u2019 capacity to endure suffering for evidence that his policies are working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former Vice President said while government revenues and FAAC allocations to states have increased, citizens\u2019 purchasing power has collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTinubu\u2019s courtiers may clap because FAAC allocations have increased, but hungry Nigerians cannot boil FAAC figures for dinner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Atiku further alleged that despite the President\u2019s declaration that \u201csubsidy is gone,\u201d the NNPC\u2019s audited accounts still show about \u20a617.5 trillion in energy-security costs and petroleum under-recoveries, including \u20a67.13 trillion classified as Energy Security and \u20a68.67 trillion in under-recoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo what exactly did Tinubu remove? If subsidy is dead, why are under-recoveries alive? If corruption was eliminated, why has opacity survived?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He stated that he is not proposing a return to the \u201ccorrupt, open-ended subsidy bazaar\u201d but a \u201ctargeted, capped, budgeted, time-bound and independently audited production-support mechanism tied to domestic production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Atiku also faulted the rise in FAAC allocations to states, saying it promotes dependency on Abuja rather than fiscal federalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou do not build a federation by impoverishing citizens so that Abuja can send bigger cheques to governors. That is robbing households to subsidise governments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, further called on the Presidency to explain about \u20a630 trillion in Federation Account revenues and the \u20a612.8 trillion Service-Wide Vote in the 2026 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNigerians have paid enough for Tinubunomics. They should not be sentenced to another four years of the bitter experiment,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Muhammad Baqeer Isa Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of presiding over \u201ceconomic arson\u201d and handing Nigerians the bill for a subsidy regime he claimed to have removed. In a press statement issued on Friday, August 21, 2026, by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the Tinubu administration detonated simultaneous shocks in fuel price, exchange rate and cost of living without a credible transition plan. \u201cHere is an administration that detonated simultaneous fuel-price, exchange-rate and cost-of-living shocks across a fragile economy, watched millions become poorer, and now struts around Abuja demanding applause for the wreckage,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThat is not reform. It is economic arson followed by propaganda about the ashes.\u201d Atiku was responding to Tinubu\u2019s recent criticism of his proposed petroleum-sector intervention. He described Tinubu\u2019s attack as \u201cthe insolent sermon of a failed economic experimenter who mistakes Nigerians\u2019 capacity to endure suffering for evidence that his policies are working.\u201d The former Vice President said while government revenues and FAAC allocations to states have increased, citizens\u2019 purchasing power has collapsed. \u201cTinubu\u2019s courtiers may clap because FAAC allocations have increased, but hungry Nigerians cannot boil FAAC figures for dinner,\u201d he said. Atiku further alleged that despite the President\u2019s declaration that \u201csubsidy is gone,\u201d the NNPC\u2019s audited accounts still show about \u20a617.5 trillion in energy-security costs and petroleum under-recoveries, including \u20a67.13 trillion classified as Energy Security and \u20a68.67 trillion in under-recoveries. \u201cSo what exactly did Tinubu remove? If subsidy is dead, why are under-recoveries alive? If corruption was eliminated, why has opacity survived?\u201d he asked. He stated that he is not proposing a return to the \u201ccorrupt, open-ended subsidy bazaar\u201d but a \u201ctargeted, capped, budgeted, time-bound and independently audited production-support mechanism tied to domestic production.\u201d Atiku also faulted the rise in FAAC allocations to states, saying it promotes dependency on Abuja rather than fiscal federalism. \u201cYou do not build a federation by impoverishing citizens so that Abuja can send bigger cheques to governors. That is robbing households to subsidise governments,\u201d he said. The former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, further called on the Presidency to explain about \u20a630 trillion in Federation Account revenues and the \u20a612.8 trillion Service-Wide Vote in the 2026 budget. \u201cNigerians have paid enough for Tinubunomics. They should not be sentenced to another four years of the bitter experiment,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28112,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28110\/revisions\/28112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}