Senator Abdul’Aziz Yari, Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 Presidential Campaign Council, has said anyone promising to restore petrol subsidy is deceiving Nigerians.
Gatekeepers News reports that Yari made the remarks on Saturday when members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) paid him a courtesy visit. He was reacting to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s promise to restore petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), recently said he would introduce a targeted subsidy, arguing that Nigerians had not seen sufficient accountability for the savings from the removal of the policy.
However, Yari said restoring the former subsidy regime would not be feasible, pointing out that the 2023 budget passed by the National Assembly before President Bola Tinubu assumed office did not make provision for petrol subsidy.
The former Zamfara governor questioned how any government could fund a return to the policy, describing promises to restore it as misleading.
Yari also raised concerns about the amount previously spent on petrol subsidy, saying the figure could have reached about N20 trillion annually, while questioning the accuracy of Nigeria’s reported daily fuel consumption figures.
He recalled that, during his tenure as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, governors repeatedly challenged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to provide accurate figures on the country’s fuel consumption.
According to him, the governors were told at different times that subsidy payments were partly covering fuel consumed in other West African countries.
Yari further said the APC would focus its 2027 campaign on the achievements of the Tinubu administration and its plans for the future rather than attacking opposition politicians.
He maintained that the APC believes President Tinubu is on the right path and deserves another term in office.
