The National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ajibola Basiru, has chided the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, and his running mate, Chibuike Amaechi, over the removal of the fuel subsidy.
Basiru made the remarks when the APC national leadership received ADC legislative candidates from the northern region who abandoned their political ambitions to support President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Attacking Atiku, Basiru said he should “bury his head in shame” for what he described as failures during his tenure overseeing the privatisation of Nigeria’s critical assets. He also accused Amaechi of being irresponsible, saying the former minister spent millions of naira on his mother’s burial while claiming he had no money for her medical care.
Basiru said that, contrary to popular belief, the country has returned to self-sufficiency following the removal of the fuel subsidy, and dismissed suggestions that the president is under pressure to reinstate it. He emphasized the difference between price modulation and subsidy, and said the era of state governments borrowing to pay workers’ and pensioners’ salaries or to fund infrastructure is over.
“When you see people trying to unnecessarily create division where there is none, then you ask whether the ambition is really worth the whole process,” he said.
“In the past four weeks, the kind of utterances by people aspiring to lead Nigeria will make one wonder whether it is about delivering for the Nigerian people or pursuing inordinate ambition.
“I heard Rotimi Amaechi say we should not have built a seaport in Ogun State because ‘the president wants to make money from it.’
“We also see an absurd position from someone who, he said, served as a tutor and ‘from 1999 until 2023 has not done any work except being serviced by Nigeria,’ claiming he had no money to buy drugs for his mother yet had millions for her burial. Such irresponsible people, he added, have no business being close to the corridors of power.”
