Thanks to ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, who is now promising to restore the fuel subsidies that the Bola Tinubu administration removed in 2023, the matter will be a major campaign issue. As expected, the APC crowd quickly reminded Atiku that removing the fuel subsidies was his campaign promise during the 2023 electioneering; going back on his word makes him look inconsistent. Atiku was not the only one who promised to remove the fuel subsidy. Two other leading presidential candidates also did, reflecting a lack of ideological polarisation in our political parties. It is the bane of our politics that political parties do not have a distinct ideology, competing economic or moral vision, or contrasting strategy for execution, and, therefore, no distinguishable policy plan. Candidates tend to go for what is politically expedient and calculated to excite voters, which is also why people generally vote for personalities (representing tribe and religion) rather than policy.
In any case, Atiku is not the only opportunist here. Tinubu himself staunchly opposed subsidies when his party was the leading opposition voice, only to remove them as President. While one can argue that he evolved politically and ideologically to change his position, one is also unsure what truly changed with Tinubu. He did not appear at the presidential debates, not merely because he lacks persuasive rhetorical skills, but also because he has not had a single idea in decades that had not been curated by a battery of assistants and ghostwriters whose ideological persuasions themselves are incoherent. He cannot defend rethinking his previous stance because he likely did not fully understand what he previously said.
