Ologbondiyan Backs Atiku's Fuel Subsidy Reform Plan

Kola Ologbondiyan, a senior figure in the African Democratic Congress, has thrown his support behind Ologbondiyan Atiku's fuel subsidy reform proposals, arguing that Nigerians are suffering under the current pump price regime and that something has to give.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily on Channels Television, Ologbondiyan pushed back firmly on suggestions that ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar wants to revive the old, opaque subsidy system scrapped by President Tinubu at his 2023 inauguration.

"Let me start on a very clean note, which is that nobody is returning Nigeria to the old system. Nobody is contemplating that, not the ADC presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. Nobody is," he said.

He said his own position on the subsidy removal has been consistent from the start.

"I have always told the Tinubu administration to review the subsidy regime. I did declare that the removal of the subsidy would hurt Nigerians and the Tinubu administration more," he said.

Atiku's plan, formally known as the Atiku Fuel Affordability Plan and part of his broader Atiku Economic Recovery Plan for 2027, is built around supplying domestic refineries with crude oil at a controlled, preferential price within a fixed annual budget ceiling, rather than an open-ended subsidy that keeps costing whatever it costs. His campaign has framed it as an audited, disciplined intervention aimed squarely at making fuel affordable, not a return to the pre-2023 model.

Ologbondiyan summarized the reasoning behind the proposal.

"Atiku is saying that if you look at the cost of production, from production to the end user, there must be areas that are reviewable in the hope of reducing the cost of production, in a manner that will enable end users to buy their products at a lower price, compared with the strangulating situation Nigerians are currently passing through," he said.

Ologbondiyan pointed directly to how sharply fuel prices have climbed since subsidy removal took effect.

"We were buying fuel for about N200 or less before May 29, 2023, but today we are buying fuel for N1,300," he said.

He argued the scale of that increase, and its impact on ordinary Nigerians, is reason enough to revisit the policy.

"So, what are we saying, that the situation is static, that it's not reviewable?" he said.

Ologbondiyan also addressed criticism that Atiku is contradicting his own past support for subsidy removal.

"I also find it laughable that Atiku said this in 2023 but is now changing his position. What do they take Nigerians for? Didn't the President's camp, before they came into office, campaign against subsidy removal? Didn't they come into government on account of subsidy reforms? So, I don't understand where they are coming from," he said.

The Presidency has rejected that framing entirely. Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has described Atiku's proposal as a political reversal driven by ambition rather than genuine policy conviction, rather than a serious economic alternative. The APC has also maintained that the subsidy removal, despite its short-term pain, was necessary to stabilize government finances, and denies that any recent price interventions amount to a quiet return of subsidy.