Wike Blasts Atiku Following Promise To Return Fuel Subsidy

The minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has criticised the presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Atiku Abubakar over his promise to restore fuel subsidy if elected president in 2027.

Wike, who spoke on Thursday in Abuja while inspecting ongoing infrastructure projects across the nation’s capital, accused the former vice president, Atiku, of being inconsistent in the policy he previously held.

The minister recalled that Atiku had pledged during the 2023 presidential campaign to remove fuel subsidy within his first 100 days in office if elected.

He, however, said the former vice president was now advocating a different position ahead of the 2027 election.

“Now, in 2026, he is not going to remove the fuel subsidy. Is he going back to the fraud, which he had alleged that fuel subsidy was?” Wike asked.

The FCT minister described Atiku as a “voodoo economist”, alleging that the former vice president was changing his position to suit his political interests.

“Atiku, who is confused, who acts like a voodoo economist, Atiku will say anything just to be president,” he said.

Wike maintained that consistency was an important attribute of leadership, arguing that presidential candidates should be able to defend their policies regardless of political circumstances.

“Leadership is not you coming out, you say one thing now in the morning, in the afternoon you say a different thing, in the night you are talking of a different thing. That is not it,” he said.

He also questioned the feasibility of restoring fuel subsidy under the current structure of Nigeria’s petroleum industry.

According to him, the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) transformed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation into NNPC Limited and established a commercially oriented framework for the petroleum sector.

“He is living in the past. If not, he will know that with the Petroleum Industry Act, NNPC is now fully commercialised. It has transformed the old NNPC into a limited liability company (NNPC Limited), and no longer the sole importer or producer of fuel,” Wike said.

He further asked how an Atiku administration would implement a subsidy regime in an environment where locally refined petroleum products, including those produced by the Dangote Refinery, are increasingly entering the market.

“Will Atiku, as President, pay subsidy on fuel produced by Dangote Refinery?” he asked.

Wike argued that bringing back subsidy would undermine the objectives of the PIA and reverse reforms aimed at creating a commercially driven petroleum market.

He said subsidy had historically contributed to smuggling, arbitrage, inefficiency and opaque fiscal practices, while also reducing government revenue.

The minister challenged Atiku to explain how he would handle the savings generated by the removal of subsidy if he disagreed with the policy.

“All I thought he would have argued, ‘Yes, I still believe in the removal of fuel subsidy, and I think that the savings made would have been utilised in this way or that way,’” Wike said.

Defending the Tinubu administration, Wike said subsidy removal had increased allocations to the federal, state and local governments, allowing them to meet critical financial obligations.

“Nobody talks about non-payment of pension, nobody talks about non-payment of salary. Before, for you to pay salary, you would beg and beg the banks to give you money. But all those things are things of the past,” he said.

On the 2027 presidential contest, Wike dismissed suggestions that Atiku remained one of the leading contenders, insisting that Tinubu was the dominant candidate.

“I disagree with you that Atiku is one of the leading candidates,” he said. “You have only one leading candidate, and that’s Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu.”

He also claimed that the opposition was less capable of challenging the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) than it was in 2023.

“That’s why I say that 2027 is gone. It’s gone because you don’t have an opposition that want to wrestle power from the government,” Wike said.

Wike also addressed concerns over alleged rising armed robbery in Abuja, rejecting claims that the crime had increased significantly.

“I’m not saying there are no one or two incidents of crime, but to say the armed robbery has increased in Abuja, I don’t agree,” he said.

He said security agencies were responding to isolated incidents and disclosed that the Department of State Services had tracked an individual allegedly impersonating security personnel and using fake materials to harass residents.