Fuel Subsidy Removal: Atiku Demands Tinubu Answer 'Where Is the Money'

• Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar accused the Tinubu administration of failing to deliver on promises made when the fuel subsidy was removed in 2023
• Atiku's statement, issued through his aide Phrank Shaibu, pointed to the looming ASUU strike as evidence that subsidy savings never reached education
• The former presidential candidate questioned the logic of NELFUND loans, saying the government helped create the hardship it now offers students debt to survive

Legit.ng journalist Adekunle Dada has over 8 years of experience covering metro, government policy, and international issues

FCT, Abuja - The ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Tinubu to account for the proceeds of fuel subsidy removal.

Atiku said ordinary Nigerians have paid the full cost of the policy through soaring prices but are yet to see the improvements in public services that were promised in return.

The former Vice President argued that the threat of a fresh Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, combined with unpaid entitlements and deteriorating university infrastructure, shows the government has collected the sacrifice and withheld the reward.

Atiku's Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, made this known in a statement issued and made available to Legit.ng on Sunday, September 13, 2026,

"The house of cards of falsehoods erected by the Tinubu administration to justify the suffering of Nigerians is collapsing before our eyes," Atiku said in the statement.

Subsidy savings and the education question

Atiku said the government sold subsidy removal to Nigerians on the explicit promise that the money freed up would be invested in education, healthcare and infrastructure.

More than three years on, he said, lecturers are still raising concerns about unpaid salaries, ASUU is again warning of industrial action, and university facilities remain woefully inadequate.

He also pushed back on government claims that subsidy savings have flowed to state governments through larger allocations, asking why the quality of public education at the state level has not improved alongside those figures.

"You cannot boast about record allocations while students sit at home because lecturers are on strike. You cannot celebrate higher revenues when classrooms, laboratories, hostels and teaching facilities remain inadequate," Atiku said.

NELFUND and the 'vicious circle' argument

The former Vice President also turned his criticism on the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), which the government has promoted as a solution for students struggling to afford university fees.

He argued the scheme is hollow because it was the government's own economic decisions that pushed those fees beyond reach in the first place.

"What kind of reform first empties a family's pocket and then offers the child a loan to survive the hardship government helped create? That is not progress. It is a vicious circle of government-manufactured poverty," he said.

Atiku added that the problem is sharpened by Nigeria's growing youth population, which is producing more university applicants every year without any corresponding expansion in campus infrastructure, admission spaces or teaching facilities.

He closed with a direct question to the president:

"The sacrifice has been collected from Nigerians in full. The promised benefits have not been delivered in full. So President Tinubu must answer the question that will not go away: where is the money?"

INEC takes action against Atiku's suit

Meanwhile, Legit.ng also reported that INEC filed a counter-affidavit asking the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss Atiku's suit over Tinubu's certificates.

The electoral body argued that Atiku lacked the legal standing to bring the case and that the suit amounted to an abuse of court process.

Atiku alleged in a 25-paragraph affidavit that Tinubu submitted a forged NYSC certificate to INEC as far back as the 1999 Lagos governorship election.