Paul Ibe, media aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has accused President Bola Tinubu’s management of returning to an opaque petrol subsidy regime via its 30-day petrol cut price initiative.
Ibe argued that the initiative would now not cope with Nigeria’s national petrol affordability disaster as it was once restricted in period and limited to a small phase of the rustic’s filling stations.
DAILY POST stories that the Tinubu management introduced a 30-day petrol cut price at NNPC filling stations amid issues over emerging gasoline costs and the price of residing.
In a remark posted on X on Friday, Ibe mentioned Nigerians wanted less expensive petrol around the nation relatively than a brief cut price to be had most effective at decided on retailers.
“You can’t resolve a national affordability disaster with a narrowly focused cut price. Nigerians want less expensive petrol far and wide, now not less expensive petrol someplace, and in no way for simply 30 days,” Ibe wrote.
He added, “From each indication, Tinubu is strolling again to the opaque subsidy regime that he claimed was once long gone for just right.”
The Atiku aide accused the Tinubu management of prioritising arguments over whether or not the intervention must be described as a subsidy or a margin cut price relatively than addressing the hardship led to by way of top petrol costs.
Ibe, alternatively, welcomed any authentic relief in petrol costs, insisting that reduction should be honest, obtainable and sustainable.
To toughen his argument, he cited Nigeria’s estimated 22,681 filling stations, noting that the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Corporate Restricted (NNPC) operated greater than 900 retailers, representing kind of 4 in line with cent of the national retail community.
He additionally cited an estimated 17 in line with cent retail marketplace proportion for NNPC in 2024, arguing that the corporate’s community was once inadequate to ship significant reduction to Nigerians national.
Ibe additional referenced an NNPC record for July 2026, which he mentioned confirmed petrol availability throughout its retail community at 52 in line with cent.
He wondered how the federal government supposed to verify national get right of entry to to the cut price, in particular for Nigerians residing in communities with out NNPC filling stations.
In step with him, citizens in such spaces might be pressured to trip lengthy distances to get right of entry to the cut price, incurring further bills regardless of the commercial hardship they had been dealing with.
The media aide warned that the selective association may create inequalities very similar to the ones related to the electrical energy Band A, B and C classification, the place shoppers enjoy other ranges of carrier and prices relying on their places.
He maintained that the federal government’s intervention amounted to an acknowledgement that marketplace forces on my own may now not protect Nigerians from insufferable petrol costs.
Ibe additionally advocated Atiku’s proposed production-based subsidy, arguing that decreasing prices on the level of manufacturing would permit the advantages to unfold throughout the wider distribution community.
He insisted that Nigerians deserved a extra complete and sustainable answer than a 30-day petrol cut price.