Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has reminded President Bola Tinubu that Nigeria’s foreign reserve is not his private savings but national assets.
Atiku in a statement by Director of Strategic Communications of his Presidential Campaign (PCC), Phrank Shaibu dismissed a statement credited to the National Publicity of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Felix Morka, that his (Atiku) proposed production subsidy for locally refined petroleum products, is a “phantom” and unrealistic plan.
The former vice president disagreed that his proposals would threaten Nigeria’s foreign reserves and undermine the current administration’s economic reforms.
Atiku who is a candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), promised that his proposed fuel subsidy would be transparent, budgeted and tied to petroleum products refined in Nigeria and sold to
He said APC could debate the cost and design of his fuel subsidy, but calling it a plan to loot reserves is to downplay the hardship facing families.
The former vice president recalled that he chaired the National Council on Privatisation, when he served in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government, and initiated major part of its economic reform programme.
“Tinubu has governed for more than three years. Nigerians can assess his leadership every time they buy food, pay for transport or settle an electricity bill.
“Morka can recite inflated reserve claims and attack Atiku all day. Neither exercise reduces those costs,” Atiku said.
The ADC candidate said he understood Morka’s predicament, and told him that defending a government that has made daily life painfully expensive cannot be an easy assignment.
“But Nigerians will not forget what they pay at the market and the petrol station simply because an APC spokesman has found another insult for Atiku,” he added.
