Yari: Subsidy Can’t Return, Anyone Promising to Restore It is Deceiving Nigerians
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Director General of the 2027 Presidential Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdulaziz Yari, has said any politician campaigning on a promise to restore the subsidy regime is misleading the public.Yari, who spoke when members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) visited him, was responding to a pledge by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to introduce a targeted subsidy system if elected president in 2027.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), had argued that Nigerians were yet to see clear evidence of how funds saved from subsidy removal were being utilised.He promised a different approach to cushion the impact of petrol price increases.
But Yari insisted that the subsidy system had become too costly and lacked transparency.He argued that restoring it would create more problems for the country.The former Zamfara State governor said there was no provision for petrol subsidy in the 2023 budget approved by the National Assembly before Tinubu assumed office in May that year.“Before Asiwaju came in in 2023, there was no budget for subsidy. The National Assembly passed the budget in March, but there was no provision for subsidy in the 2023 budget,” Yari said.
