A SUPPORT group for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar 2027 Presidential race, United Friends For Atiku (UFFA), has unreservedly endorsed the timely, incisive, and patriotic intervention of their Principal, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar regarding the Tinubu administration’s alleged ill-conceived 30-day petrol discount stunt.
In a press release issued over the weekend by its National Executive Council in Abuja to the media, the group said Nigerians woke up this week to the government’s sudden announcement of a temporary price cut on petrol dispensed through NNPC retail outlets.
According to the group, “As Atiku Abubakar rightly pointed out, this panic-induced maneuver is not an economic policy; it is a confession of systemic failure, an insult to the intelligence of our citizens, and a cosmetic band-aid applied to a gaping, self-inflicted wound.”
UFFA said the core question posed by Atiku Abubakar echoes the anxiety of more than 200 million Nigerians, asking; “What happens when the 30 days expire?”
It noted that for over three years, the Tinubu administration consistently asked Nigerians to endure unprecedented hardship under the guise of fiscal reforms – watching fuel leap from ₦198 to over ₦1,300 per litre, transporting costs multiply exponentially, food prices skyrocket past 40% inflation, and small businesses shutter nationwide.
“To now offer a fragile 30-day respite as elections approach is both cynical and cruel. Thirty days of cosmetic relief cannot erase over three years of calculated impoverishment. Nigerians need durable economic stability, not a countdown to the return of misery,” the group queried.
UFFA notes with keen interest Atiku’s observation that the current administration is behaving like an unprepared student copying another’s exam script, stressing that having vehemently mocked his well-articulated, sustainable production-subsidy model for years, the Tinubu administration clumsily attempted to copy the concept, while fatally stripping away the structural components that make it viable.
The group further said Atiku’s economic blueprint has always been explicit, most especially the support for domestic production, and subsidize output and feedstocks for refineries operating on Nigerian soil, not imported finished petroleum products.
Speaking on Fiscal discipline and transparency, the group said there was the need to put any intervention cleanly into the national budget, define its financial ceiling, subject it to independent audit, and publish the actual costs and savings to the Nigerian public.
The group believes that what needs to be put on the table was price stabilisation with robust, functioning mass transit networks and domestic refining capacity.
It added that instead of adopting this coherent strategy, the Tinubu administration delivered an ad-hoc, opaque, ex-gantry price-capping scramble that leaves critical questions unanswered: Who is funding this discount? Which line item in the national budget covers it? What happens when foreign exchange swings intensify?
UFFA submitted that the 30-day retreat represents an open admission by the ruling government that its abruptly declared “subsidy is gone” regime was rolled out without planning, foresight, or human empathy.
“By hurriedly returning to an NNPC-managed price reduction, the administration has admitted what UFFA and ordinary citizens have argued all along: an economy cannot survive an unbuffered price shock on energy and transportation,” it said.
The release further stated: “United Friends For Atiku warns that no amount of eleventh-hour political handouts can distract the electorate from the reality in their kitchens, marketplaces, and transport terminals. We urge all Nigerians, civil society groups, organised labour, and community leaders to stand firm behind the rescue agenda championed by Atiku Abubakar.”
According to the group, the solution to Nigeria’s energy and cost-of-living crisis is not a temporary 30-day discount designed to buy peace before another price escalation, arguing that it is visionary, transparent, and competent leadership that puts the Nigerian people first.
