Atiku Abubakar’s Unsolicited Homework

Sunday Dare

September 21, 2026
10 min read
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar convened a press conference in Abuja and chose, once again, to address the President of the Federal Republic as “Bola.”

He issued instructions. He dictated a truncated timetable. He presumed to tell a sitting President how governance should be conducted in the remaining months before the next general election.

That is not opposition. It is political theatre.

And it is time to separate legitimate criticism from the presumption that every statement from a former vice-president seeking the presidency must be treated as an instruction to a sitting government.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the elected President of Nigeria. He has a mandate. His administration has a programme. His policies may be debated, criticised and challenged, but the responsibility for governing Nigeria belongs to the government elected by Nigerians.

Alhaji Atiku is entitled to disagree with that government. He is entitled to propose alternatives. He is entitled to tell Nigerians that he would do things differently.

But he is not the President.

The office of the President is not a classroom, and Nigeria is not a rehearsal hall in which political aspirants can dictate deadlines to an administration they oppose.

If Alhaji Atiku has a different economic blueprint, the country is waiting to hear it. If he believes petrol prices should be reduced, let him explain precisely how. If he wants subsidies restored, let him tell Nigerians how much the policy will cost, who will benefit, how it will be funded and how he intends to prevent the abuses that accompanied previous subsidy arrangements.

That is what serious opposition should look like.

Instead, we are being presented with political homework for a government that is already doing the work of governing.

Atiku’s recent intervention focused heavily on the cost of petrol and electricity and called on the President to use the remaining period before the election to ease the burden on Nigerians.

There is nothing wrong with raising those concerns. Nigerians are indeed interested in the price of petrol, electricity, food, transportation and other essentials.

But the question is what happens after the slogan.

What is the policy?

What is the cost?

What is the legal framework?

What is the funding mechanism?

What is the exit strategy?

Who bears the burden?

And, most importantly, what lessons have we learnt from the policies of the past?

These are questions Alhaji Atiku must answer if he wishes Nigerians to treat his intervention as a serious alternative economic programme rather than another campaign-season talking point.

The Tinubu administration inherited an economy carrying significant structural pressures. The removal of the petrol subsidy was one of the most consequential decisions taken at the beginning of this administration.

It was painful. It remains painful for many Nigerians.

But the argument for reform has never been that reform is painless.

The argument is that Nigeria cannot continue indefinitely financing an expensive system whose fiscal consequences undermine the very government that is expected to provide infrastructure, security, education, healthcare and other public services.

For years, Nigeria spent enormous sums supporting petrol consumption while struggling to finance basic public obligations.

The question, therefore, is not simply whether Nigerians would like cheaper petrol. Of course they would.

The real question is whether the country can sustainably achieve lower prices without recreating the fiscal and institutional problems that made the previous system so controversial.

Alhaji Atiku should tell Nigerians what his answer is.

His recent intervention also represents an interesting change in emphasis.

In November 2022, while speaking at the Lagos Business School, Atiku criticised the petrol subsidy system and said he would complete its removal if elected. He referred to his role in the earlier phases of subsidy reform.

Yet in August 2026, he said, “I will restore it.”

That is a legitimate political choice.

But it deserves an explanation.

What changed?

What new evidence has emerged?

What safeguards does he now propose?

How would his version differ from the subsidy regime he previously criticised?

Would his proposal be an import subsidy, a production subsidy or another form of government intervention?

Would government provide discounted crude to domestic refiners?

Would refiners be required to reduce pump prices?

Who would determine the price?

And what would prevent the new system from becoming another mechanism through which public resources are transferred without sufficient benefit reaching ordinary Nigerians?

These are not hostile questions.

They are the basic questions any serious economic proposal must answer.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has also reminded Nigerians that the Petroleum Industry Act provides for market-determined pricing, subject to the statutory conditions for intervention. The regulator said no market failure had been declared to justify such an intervention at present.

If Alhaji Atiku wants to change that framework, he should say so.

If his proposal requires legislative amendments, let him say so.

If it requires appropriation by the National Assembly, let him disclose the projected amount.

If it requires government-owned crude to be sold below prevailing market value, let him explain the fiscal implications.

If it requires refiners to sell petrol below market price, let him identify the mechanism for enforcing that condition.

Nigeria deserves more than a promise that petrol will become cheaper.

Nigeria deserves the mathematics behind the promise.

This is particularly important because every naira surrendered by the Federation has an opportunity cost.

When crude is sold below its economic value for a policy intervention, somebody bears the difference. The question is whether that cost is justified by a measurable benefit to Nigerians.

That is why the subsidy debate must move beyond political nostalgia.

We cannot simply remember the cheap pump prices of the past and forget the queues, smuggling, fraudulent claims, fiscal pressure and opaque arrangements that accompanied the system.

Cheap petrol is desirable.

Unsustainable cheap petrol is not economic policy.

It is deferred cost.

And Nigeria has deferred enough costs.

The government is therefore pursuing another route: reducing dependence on petrol by expanding compressed natural gas and electric transportation.

That approach deserves scrutiny too. Government should be required to demonstrate that the promised savings reach commuters and that the infrastructure is reliable, accessible and commercially sustainable.

But there is already evidence that alternative-energy transport can reduce fares in several parts of the country.

The President recently reported that more than 120,000 vehicles had been converted to CNG, alongside more than 400 certified conversion centres and over 90 CNG refuelling stations.

The administration says CNG-powered and electric transport services are already producing lower fares in several states.

This is the kind of policy debate Nigeria needs.

Show us the numbers.

Show us the infrastructure.

Show us the savings.

Show us the beneficiaries.

Show us the cost to government.

That is how policy should be debated.

Not by shouting across the political divide.

Not by reducing complex economic questions to slogans.

And certainly not by pretending that a press conference constitutes an alternative government.

There is another issue Alhaji Atiku must confront: the Mambilla controversy.

I do not suggest that the arbitration award should be distorted for political purposes. The facts must speak for themselves.

The International Chamber of Commerce tribunal in Paris recently rejected claims brought by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited against Nigeria in connection with the Mambilla power project.

The ruling was significant for Nigeria because the claims involved hundreds of millions of dollars, with a separate dispute involving billions of dollars.

President Tinubu welcomed the decision as a major legal victory for Nigeria.

But the political controversy surrounding the matter has not disappeared.

The tribunal examined a $500,000 payment made by Sunrise Power promoter Leno Adesanya to Jennifer Douglas Abubakar, Atiku’s former wife. The tribunal expressed concerns about the explanation offered for the payment and the evidence supporting that explanation.

Atiku has strongly disputed any suggestion that the award established that he personally received a bribe or corruptly influenced the Mambilla contract.

That distinction matters.

The tribunal’s findings should not be converted into a corruption conviction that it did not issue.

But neither should the legitimate questions raised by the award simply be dismissed as political propaganda.

If Alhaji Atiku wants to present himself as an alternative leader, Nigerians are entitled to ask questions about matters connected to his public record.

He should answer them.

That is the nature of public life.

A politician cannot demand scrutiny of an opponent’s record while treating scrutiny of his own history as an illegitimate political attack.

The same principle applies to the economy.

If Atiku believes President Tinubu is wrong, he should demonstrate where and explain what he would do differently.

If he believes subsidy restoration is the answer, let him produce the full costing.

If he believes electricity prices should be reduced, let him explain how.

If he believes government should intervene in markets, let him explain the fiscal limits.

If he believes deregulation has failed, let him present the evidence.

And if he believes Nigerians should return him to the presidency, then he should make that case directly to Nigerians.

That is what elections are for.

It is election season.

The campaign trail will come.

There will be debates.

There will be manifestos.

There will be rallies.

There will be interviews.

There will be opportunities to compare records and policies.

Alhaji Atiku should use those platforms.

But until the election arrives, the Federal Government will continue to govern.

The President will continue to make decisions.

Ministers will continue to implement policies.

Agencies will continue to execute programmes.

And Nigeria will continue to confront the difficult realities of an economy that requires reform.

My concern is not that Atiku criticises the administration.

He should.

A democracy needs criticism.

My concern is the quality of the alternative being presented.

Nigeria does not need political instructions without fiscal calculations.

We do not need promises without funding mechanisms.

We do not need nostalgia without an honest accounting of the past.

And we certainly do not need an economic policy that sounds attractive at the podium but collapses when subjected to the arithmetic of government.

If Alhaji Atiku has a better plan, let him bring it.

Let Nigerians examine it.

Let economists interrogate it.

Let legal experts test it.

Let businesses calculate its consequences.

Let workers and families determine whether it addresses their realities.

That is democracy.

But the Presidency is not a schoolroom and the President is not a pupil awaiting homework from an opposition candidate.

Nigeria has a government.

Nigeria has a President.

And Nigeria has an election coming.

Alhaji Atiku should therefore take his economic blueprint to the Nigerian people and make his case.

He should tell them what he will do, how much it will cost and how he will do it.

He should defend his record.

He should answer questions about his proposals.

He should explain the evolution of his position on subsidy.

He should address the issues raised by the Mambilla controversy without exaggeration or evasion.

Then Nigerians can decide.

Until then, unsolicited instructions from the sidelines will remain exactly that: unsolicited.

The work of government continues.

The reforms continue.

The debates will continue.

Atiku Abubakar’s Unsolicited Homework

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