Atiku Abubakar, an ex-vice president of Nigeria has condemned what he called “mismanagement of the removal of fuel subsidy” by President Bola Tinubu.
Atiku, blamed the president’s “haphazard and disingenuous approach” for the economic challenges bedevilling the country.
“The haphazard and disingenuous approach of the current administration to fuel subsidy management has been the reason we are in this current economic crisis in the country,” he wrote on X on Thursday.
The former VP criticized Tinubu for being “undisturbed” by the latest hike expected to reflect on the prices of goods and services in the coming days, which would further stifle Nigerians’ ability to afford basic needs.
“As things stand, there will be no let up in the escalating inflation rate, which is drowning the material well-being of Nigerians. It is even more worrying that T-pain is undisturbed by the hardship in the country. -AA,” Atiku added.
Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with skyrocketing inflation, the national currency in free-fall and millions of people struggling to buy food. Only two years ago Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria is projected to drop to fourth place this year.
The pain is widespread. Unions strike to protest salaries of around $20 a month. People die in stampedes, desperate for free sacks of rice. Hospitals are overrun with women wracked by spasms from calcium deficiencies.
Although President Bola Tinubu increased the minimum wage — after strike action and months-long negotiations with labour unions — from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000, his government has increased spending for officials at a time of nationwide starvation.
For workers earning the new ₦70,000, or $43 per month minimum wage, capricious inflation and naira value have inflicted too much damage for the changes to make any difference in their lives.
The crisis is largely believed to be rooted in two major changes implemented by Tinubu, elected 17 months ago: the partial removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the currency, which together have caused major price rises.
Over a year after Tinubu declared end to fuel subsidy, the fuel price which had been hiked a few times during his first year in office, officially hit the ₦1,000 mark on Wednesday, as oil marketers including state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited, adjusted their pumps in Abuja to ₦1,030 per litre and those in Lagos State did to ₦998, compounding the woes of the citizens who power their vehicles, and generating sets with petrol, no thanks to decades-long epileptic electricity supply.
This came days after the NNPC Limited withdrew from being middlemen between the oil marketers and the Aliko Dangote-owned refinery for the supply of fuel.
This also came after Dangote urged the president to fully hand off fuel subsidy.
In recent weeks, the nation has suffered an acute fuel scarcity that led the few stations with fuel to sell at exorbitant prices above ₦1,000 per litre while black market prices exceeded ₦1,200.
A nation of entrepreneurs, Nigeria’s more than 200 million citizens are skilled at managing in tough circumstances, without the services states usually provide. They generate their own electricity and source their own water. They take up arms and defend their communities when the armed forces cannot. They negotiate with armed kidnappers when family members are abducted.
But right now, their resourcefulness is being stretched to the limit.
In August, Amnesty International accused Nigerian security forces of killing at least 21 protesters during a week of economic hardship protests.
Police and other security agencies clamped down on protests after thousands of people joined rallies against government policies and the high cost of living from August 1st to 10th.
Security forces denied responsibility for deaths during the protests.