Chike-Obi Slams Atiku’s Petrol Subsidy Plan as ‘Extremely Naive’

Chike-Obi Slams Atiku’s Petrol Subsidy Plan as ‘Extremely Naive’

Mustafa Chike-Obi, former chairman of Fidelity Bank, says the plan by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to reintroduce petrol subsidy is naive and may amount to spending half of the country’s national wealth in foreign exchange (FX).

Chike-Obi spoke on Thursday during the Policy Without Politics podcast he co-hosts with Ken Ikpe, chief executive officer (CEO) of Graviti Hill Limited.

On August 19, Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), declared that he would restore the petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027.

Speaking during an interview with an ADC media group, Atiku said President Bola Tinubu’s administration had failed to account for the funds saved from the removal of petrol subsidy.

Reacting to the plan, Chike-Obi, who is also the inaugural chief executive officer (CEO) of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), said Atiku’s statement was “extremely naive”.

“First of all, you know, I like the word naive. It doesn’t offend anybody here. It is what it is. I have a stronger word, but I will not use it,” he said.

“First of all, that’s crude. This is something that people say that drives me crazy. If you can sell crude at $100 a barrel as a country, and you say your priority is to sell it to somebody at $50, you have spent half of your national wealth in terms of foreign exchange on that product.

“So you are saying it’s the most important thing in the world.”

The ex-AMCON CEO said reintroducing petrol subsidy would create incentives for suppliers to smuggle the product abroad.

Chike-Obi said the policy would also require the government to impose price controls on suppliers and closely monitor their operations to prevent…