Subsidy: Nigerians too poor to be left to market forces — ADC

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said Nigerians are too poor to be left at the mercy of market forces, declaring that it would subsidise crude oil production to make fuel more affordable if given the opportunity to govern in 2027.

The party’s spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, stated this on Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, while explaining the ADC’s position on fuel subsidy.

Abdullahi said the party’s presidential candidate and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar believed the government should intervene to protect Nigerians from the burden of high fuel prices, rather than leave pricing entirely to market forces.

“The most important point is that, the ADC and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar are saying that Nigerians are too poor to be left to market forces. We cannot have people so poor and leave them without subsidy. So, we (ADC) are going to subsidise production,” he said.

Explaining how the proposed policy would work, Abdullahi argued that Nigeria’s status as an oil-producing country offered a basis for government intervention to reduce the cost of fuel production.

“You can ask us, where would the crude oil come from? We are an oil producing country. Whatever we need to do to subsidise the production of crude and deliver cheaper fuel to Nigerians, we are going to do it,” he said.

Using a wartime analogy to stress the party’s position, the ADC spokesperson said the government should prioritise the protection and welfare of citizens when making economic decisions.

“When your country is at war, you do not begin to talk about the price of guns and the price of bullets, you defend your country by all means necessary so ADC and Atiku Abubakar are saying, we will defend the people by all means necessary,” Abdullahi added.

He further added that government policies should be reconsidered if they failed to improve citizens’ welfare and security.

“Anything that you do as a government, any policy option that you choose as a government that does not improve the well-being and the security, and the welfare of the people, has to be reconsidered,” he said.