Atiku Blasts Govt: Demands Answers on Subsidy Funds Amid ASUU Strike Threat

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has strongly urged the President Bola Tinubu administration to provide a transparent account of the funds purportedly saved from the removal of fuel subsidy. Atiku's demand comes amidst a looming strike threat from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and growing concerns over the state of public education and other essential services in Nigeria. He highlighted that President Tinubu had initially promised to channel these savings into transforming education and other critical sectors, a promise Atiku contends the administration is now failing to uphold, risking another wave of industrial action by university lecturers.

Atiku emphasized the significant sacrifices already made by Nigerians, who have endured escalating fuel costs, increased transport fares, soaring food prices, higher energy bills, and rising school fees. Despite these burdens, public universities across the nation remain severely underfunded, lecturers are vocal about unpaid entitlements and unresolved agreements, and students face the grim prospect of further disruptions to their academic calendars. Challenging the administration directly, Atiku questioned, "If the subsidy is gone and Nigerians have paid for that decision through unprecedented hardship, then President Tinubu owes the country a simple answer: where is the money?"

In a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku reiterated that the removal of fuel subsidy was "sold" to Nigerians with the assurance that the resulting "enormous sacrifice" would unlock resources for vital areas like education, healthcare, infrastructure, and social services. He criticized the administration, stating that "The house of cards of falsehoods erected by the Tinubu administration to justify the suffering of Nigerians is collapsing before our eyes." Atiku further argued that a government that removes relief, denies social protection, and fails to deliver promised improvements lacks the "moral credibility to continue preaching sacrifice."

The former Vice President underscored the "unprecedented cost-of-living crisis" imposed on Nigerians, with families grappling with intense economic hardship while the government, he claims, has largely abandoned them to manage the burden alone. He termed the current university crisis "indefensible," pointing out that while the government reportedly collected savings from subsidy removal, there is no corresponding visible improvement in schools, hospitals, or the daily lives of citizens. Atiku reiterated that after more than three years, lecturers are still raising concerns, ASUU is threatening action, and university infrastructure remains inadequate, despite millions of young Nigerians seeking limited admission spaces annually.

Addressing the administration's defense of subsidy removal by citing increased allocations to state governments, Atiku raised a "troubling question" about the broader condition of public education nationwide. He questioned why, if "substantially more money is supposedly flowing to the states," the quality of public education has not improved. He noted that numerous state-owned universities have also experienced industrial disputes and disruptions under this administration, contradicting the Federal Government's narrative of stability in tertiary education. Atiku asserted that this crisis reveals a wider inconsistency between the government's celebrated revenues and the deteriorating public services experienced by Nigerians, emphasizing that one "cannot boast about record allocations while students sit at home because lecturers are on strike."

Atiku also highlighted a fundamental contradiction within the administration’s student loan policy. He argued that the government first exacerbated the cost of education by removing subsidies and increasing the cost of living, thereby making university education unaffordable for many families. Subsequently, the same government introduced NELFUND and is now "celebrating giving young Nigerians loans to pay fees that many of their parents can no longer comfortably afford." He condemned this as not true progress but rather "a vicious circle of government-manufactured poverty," where the government creates hardship and then offers debt as a solution.

The former Vice President expressed alarm over the administration's failure to expand tertiary education capacity, especially given Nigeria's rapidly growing youth population. He questioned the absence of new classrooms, laboratories, hostels, additional teaching facilities, and expanded admission spaces required to accommodate the increasing number of young Nigerians seeking university education. Atiku argued that it is illogical to increase education costs, maintain inadequate infrastructure, neglect lecturers' legitimate claims, disregard agreements, and then commend oneself for providing student loans, dismissing this approach as "organised hardship financed with debt."

Atiku further criticized the administration for repeatedly demanding sacrifice from ordinary Nigerians while, conversely, making "concessions, waivers and privileges for powerful interests." He observed that while "The poor are told there is no money for subsidy. Students are told to borrow. Lecturers are told to wait. Parents are told to endure," powerful and well-connected interests consistently find the government receptive to their requests. He called for Nigerians to demand accountability for the promised benefits of subsidy removal, which included significant investments in education, healthcare, infrastructure, and social welfare.

In conclusion, Atiku lamented that despite the "sacrifice collected from Nigerians in full," the promised benefits have not been delivered. He reiterated his central question to President Tinubu: "where is the money?" He cautioned that Nigerians cannot sustain "endless sacrifices for a government whose promises exist mainly in speeches, press releases and statistical announcements," and that a government cannot simply offer "excuses and loans" and label it as reform. Atiku declared that Tinubu's administration has failed to remove the threat of ASUU strikes, resolve unpaid obligations, expand universities, make education affordable, or alleviate the hardship faced by Nigerian families, branding this as "the tragedy and the fraud of the Tinubu economy."