{"id":36553,"date":"2026-08-25T09:53:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=36553"},"modified":"2026-08-25T16:20:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T15:20:43","slug":"2027-peter-obi-opposes-atikus-plan-to-restore-fuel-subsidy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/25\/2027-peter-obi-opposes-atikus-plan-to-restore-fuel-subsidy\/","title":{"rendered":"2027: Peter Obi Opposes Atiku\u2019s Plan to Restore Fuel Subsidy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Peter Obi has rejected Atiku Abubakar\u2019s proposal to restore petrol subsidies if elected president in 2027, opening a clear policy divide between two of President Bola Tinubu\u2019s leading challengers over one of Nigeria\u2019s most painful economic issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, made his position known Monday at the Nigerian Bar Association conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. He said ending the subsidy was necessary, but argued that the Tinubu administration had failed to properly manage the money saved or provide enough relief for Nigerians struggling with higher living costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI subscribe and I maintain that we need to remove subsidy,\u201d Obi said. \u201cMismanagement of the proceeds should not be the reason for not removing it.\u201d He said his disagreement was not with the principle of ending the subsidy but with how the policy was implemented and how the resulting savings have been handled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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His position puts him at odds with Atiku, the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, who has pledged to restore a form of petrol subsidy if he defeats Tinubu in the 2027 election. Atiku’s position has attracted particular attention because he also supported removing the subsidy during the 2023 presidential campaign. His campaign has since argued that his current proposal is aimed at making fuel affordable rather than simply returning Nigeria to the previous subsidy system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obi said the government should instead have created practical alternatives to cushion the impact on ordinary Nigerians while directing the savings into productive areas of the economy. \u201cWhat we should have done is that when we removed it, we should have given the people alternative usage for the subsidy,\u201d he said. He also alleged that resources generated from the policy had been mismanaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The argument is likely to resonate with millions of Nigerians who have felt the consequences of the policy at markets, petrol stations and transport parks. Tinubu declared that \u201cfuel subsidy is gone\u201d during his inauguration on May 29, 2023. Petrol prices subsequently climbed sharply, while transportation and food costs increased as households adjusted to a broader cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, successive Nigerian governments struggled with the subsidy question. Supporters said subsidised petrol helped keep transportation and other everyday costs affordable. Critics argued that the system consumed enormous public resources, encouraged smuggling and corruption, and disproportionately benefited people who consumed more fuel. Attempts to remove it have repeatedly triggered public resistance, most notably the nationwide Occupy Nigeria protests in January 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tinubu’s administration went further than many of its predecessors by ending the subsidy immediately after taking office. The government has defended the decision as necessary to repair public finances and redirect resources toward other priorities. Finance officials say the economic reforms helped Nigeria avoid a deeper fiscal crisis, strengthen reserves and attract investment, although they acknowledge the short-term pain imposed on households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many Nigerians, however, the debate is no longer simply about whether economists consider the subsidy sustainable. The question is whether the benefits promised after its removal can be felt in household finances. Rising prices and weaker purchasing power have made economic hardship a major political issue heading into the 2027 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obi said his own approach would have been gradual and organised, with savings transparently invested in areas capable of improving people’s lives. He pointed to his 2023 campaign manifesto, saying he had supported subsidy removal before Tinubu took office but had proposed managing the transition differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Other presidential candidates are also weighing in. Omoyele Sowore has rejected Atiku’s proposal, arguing that the old subsidy arrangement disproportionately benefited elites and state governments. The competing positions emerging from opposition candidates show how petrol prices, inflation and the management of public money are becoming central campaign issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The disagreement also highlights the challenge facing candidates seeking to unseat Tinubu. They must convince voters dissatisfied with the economic hardship of the past three years while explaining what they would do differently without returning Nigeria to policies they previously criticised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Nigerians paying more to travel to work, run generators or move goods across the country, the political argument has an immediate meaning. As the 2027 campaign gathers pace, the question of who should bear the cost of fuel and what happened to the money government says it saved is likely to remain at the heart of the country’s economic debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Obi has rejected Atiku Abubakar\u2019s proposal to restore petrol subsidies if elected president in 2027, opening a clear policy divide between two of President Bola Tinubu\u2019s leading challengers over one of Nigeria\u2019s most painful economic issues. Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, made his position known Monday at the Nigerian Bar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":36560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3699,4,5,3,1138],"tags":[13338,11781,23011,663,6277,20757,12832,23009,22967,564,1584,2605,23010,22946,22896,15066],"class_list":["post-36553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-featured","category-international","category-naija-news","category-politics","tag-2027-nigeria-election","tag-atiku-abubakar","tag-atiku-fuel-subsidy","tag-bola-tinubu","tag-cost-of-living-nigeria","tag-fuel-subsidy","tag-fuel-subsidy-removal","tag-fuel-subsidy-restoration","tag-nigeria-2027","tag-nigeria-politics","tag-nigerian-economy","tag-peter-obi","tag-peter-obi-fuel-subsidy","tag-petrol-prices-nigeria","tag-petrol-subsidy","tag-tinubu-administration"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/images-13-3.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36561,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36553\/revisions\/36561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}