ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has demanded a comprehensive audit of Federation Account revenues and deductions under the Bola Tinubu administration, amid the rise in petrol prices to as much as N1,470 per litre.
Atiku argued that the current fuel price was difficult to justify given that crude oil was selling at about $102.52 per barrel, compared with the $147 per barrel recorded in 2008 when petrol sold for N65 per litre under the administration of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Vanguard reports that he made the demand in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, in which he accused the Tinubu administration of failing to provide Nigerians with sufficient information on oil revenues, subsidy savings and deductions from Federation Account allocations.
“With crude oil around $102.52 per barrel, Nigerians are paying as much as N1,470 per litre. In 2008, when crude oil reached about $147 per barrel, petrol sold at N65 per litre under the Yar’Adua administration. The difference is that government then understood that economic policy must ultimately protect the welfare of citizens,” he said.
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The former vice president said the hardship resulting from fuel subsidy removal had made transparency over government revenues more important, rather than optional.
He recalled that Nigerians were told that removing the subsidy would release funds for sectors including education, healthcare and infrastructure, but questioned what had happened to the savings almost three and a half years after the policy began.
“Petrol at N1,470 per litre is not merely a figure at the filling station. It enters the price of transportation, food, school runs, farming, manufacturing and virtually everything Nigerians buy. Every increase at the pump travels directly into the household budget.
“After all the pain imposed on Nigerians, they have a right to ask: where are the subsidy savings and where is the money?”, he queried.
Atiku specifically cited Federation Account Allocation Committee figures, noting that gross Federation Account revenue was reported at N4.232 trillion in June 2025, while N1.818 trillion was eventually distributed after various deductions and other financial arrangements.
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He called for a reconciliation of all Federation Account revenues from 2023 to date, including gross collections, deductions, the legal basis for each deduction, destination accounts and the ultimate beneficiaries.
“Nigerians deserve accounts they can interrogate, not accounting labels designed to discourage questions,” he said.
The ADC candidate also demanded greater transparency over the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund, OML 143, oil production revenues and the international liquefied natural gas trading operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company.
He further called for disclosure concerning offshore corporate structures and allegations surrounding unofficial crude lifting, maritime surveillance contracts and other possible off-book revenue flows.
“These allegations are too serious to be answered with press statements and political insults. Every barrel can be measured, every cargo identified and every legitimate payment traced. If everything is in order, publish the records and allow independent forensic auditors to reconcile them. If the allegations are false, the records will clear the government,” he said.
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Atiku also criticised the argument that international developments were responsible for the latest increase in domestic fuel prices, drawing attention to the difference between petrol costs and incomes in Nigeria and the United States.
He compared the reported US petrol price of about $1.14 per litre with the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, against Nigeria’s N70,000 monthly minimum wage.
“Tinubu has brought Nigerians close to American fuel prices while leaving them with Nigerian poverty wages. That is the true cost of his subsidy-removal policy”, he said.
The former vice president said the government could not continue to demand sacrifices from citizens without providing detailed accounts of how public revenues and subsidy-related savings were being managed.
“After all the oil, all the revenue, all the deductions and all the hardship, petrol is now N1,470 per litre. The question Tinubu must answer is simple: where are the savings, where are the revenues, and who is taking Nigeria’s money?”