The African Democratic Congress vice-presidential candidate, Rotimi Amaechi, has clarified that the party’s plan to reintroduce fuel subsidy is a “production subsidy” targeted at local refineries, not a return to the old regime that enriched importers.
Amaechi made the clarification during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, where he explained the mechanics of the policy proposed by ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
“We are reintroducing production fuel subsidy. If you don’t produce in Nigeria, we will not give you subsidy,” Amaechi said .
The former Rivers State governor stressed that the ADC’s plan is fundamentally different from the subsidy regime that President Bola Tinubu removed in May 2023.
“We are not bringing back subsidy to produce rich men. That subsidy where rich men will go to Ghana, come back and say we have bought fuel for you, no,” Amaechi said during a town hall meeting in Edo State .
“Atiku will bring back production subsidy. If you don’t have a refinery in Nigeria, you will not get subsidy. We don’t have to pay for it; the government will not pay for the subsidy” .
Amaechi explained that the government would operate a dual-pricing structure for crude oil, selling to domestic refiners at a lower rate than the international market price, with the difference serving as an implicit subsidy passed on to consumers.
“All the government will do is to make a policy. The price at which I sell crude on the international market will be different from the Nigerian market. We will do domestic pricing,” he said .
“If I sell crude at N15,000 on the international market, in Nigeria, I will sell to Dangote at N10,000. The difference will be N5,000. I will then sit with Dangote and tell him to give me a subsidy of N5,000. Once that happens, the price of fuel will come down, and the prices of every other thing will come down” .
He added that the support would extend beyond the Dangote Refinery to other modular refineries operating in Nigeria, arguing that increased domestic refining would create jobs and reduce reliance on imported petroleum products .
Atiku Abubakar has consistently maintained that restoring subsidy is central to his 2027 campaign, arguing that the removal has worsened the cost of living for Nigerians.
“My position stands! I will restore subsidy to make life easier and more affordable for Nigerians,” Atiku wrote in a post on X on Monday .
In a campaign video accompanying the post, he said: “My position has not changed and will not change. I will restore it” .
The video claimed the subsidy would cover only locally refined petrol, not imports, and would remain until local refineries could operate independently .
Amaechi acknowledged that the Petroleum Industry Act might pose a legal hurdle to the production subsidy plan, but said an Atiku administration would seek legislative approval.
“One of such things that we will introduce, if the law prohibits us from doing it, is that we will put immediately that President Atiku assumes office, a law before the National Assembly, a bill before the National Assembly that… introduces production subsidy. Immediately so that we can begin to implement it,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today .
“Everything we will do will be legal” .
President Tinubu removed the petrol subsidy on May 29, 2023, during his inauguration, arguing that the government could no longer sustain the rising costs. The policy triggered a sharp increase in petrol prices, which rose from about N238 per litre to over N1,300 per litre by late 2026 .
The Federal Government has claimed the removal generated N15.8 trillion in savings between June 2023 and December 2025. Atiku has repeatedly questioned where those savings went, asking: “I initially did not oppose the removal of the fuel subsidy. But now that it has been removed, where is the money?” .
The ADC’s proposal has drawn criticism from the APC, which accused Atiku and Amaechi of “desperate” power-seeking and warned that reversing the subsidy removal would undo economic reforms . The Social Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Adewole Adebayo, also accused Atiku of inconsistency, noting that he campaigned on removing subsidy in 2023 .
A Federal High Court in Abuja voided Atiku’s ADC candidacy on November 5, but the party has appealed the judgment and applied for a stay of execution .
