Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to explain why his administration has been unable to meet its financial obligations to university lecturers despite the removal of petrol subsidy and the government’s claim that savings would be redirected to critical sectors.
Atiku said Nigerians had already paid the price of subsidy removal through higher petrol, transport, food, energy and education costs without seeing corresponding improvements in public universities.
He made the remarks in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2027 election questioned why the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was again threatening industrial action over unresolved agreements and unpaid entitlements more than three years after subsidy removal.
“If the subsidy is gone and Nigerians have paid for that decision through unprecedented hardship, then President Tinubu owes the country a simple answer: where is the money?” Atiku asked.
He recalled that the government had justified subsidy removal on the grounds that resources previously spent on subsidising petrol would become available for education, healthcare, infrastructure and other essential services.
Atiku said the renewed threat of an ASUU strike exposed what he described as a contradiction between the government’s claims of increased revenue and the state of public universities.
He accused the administration of removing an economic cushion available to citizens while failing to deliver the improvements promised following the subsidy reform.
The former vice-president also questioned the argument that subsidy savings had resulted in higher allocations to state governments.
He said Nigerians deserved an explanation for why public education had not improved significantly if more resources were now flowing to states.
Atiku said public education remained under pressure, with disputes and disruptions affecting several state-owned universities.
He further criticised the administration’s student loan policy, arguing that subsidy removal had contributed to rising living costs and made university education more expensive for families.
According to him, it was contradictory to increase the cost of education and then provide loans to students to meet expenses their families could no longer comfortably afford.
Atiku also raised concerns about the ability of Nigeria’s tertiary education system to accommodate the country’s growing youth population.
He questioned where the additional classrooms, laboratories, hostels, teaching facilities and admission spaces needed for the rising number of university applicants were.
He maintained that increasing education costs while leaving infrastructure inadequate and lecturers’ demands unresolved could not be regarded as meaningful education reform.
Atiku also accused the administration of treating ordinary Nigerians differently from powerful and well-connected interests, alleging that government was more willing to provide concessions and privileges when influential groups made demands.
He called for greater accountability over the use of resources freed by the removal of petrol subsidy.
