Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has explained why he wants to restore petrol subsidy if elected president in 2027, saying Nigerians have yet to see how the money saved from the removal of the subsidy has been used.

Atiku stated this in an interview with BBC Hausa published on Friday, while responding to questions about his plans for Nigerians facing severe economic hardship.

The African Democratic Congress presidential candidate said he did not oppose the removal of the subsidy but questioned what had happened to the funds that were expected to be freed by the policy.

“I did not oppose the removal of the oil subsidy, but where is the money? Where did it go?” Atiku asked.

According to him, the money should have been deployed to improve the welfare of Nigerians, particularly by reducing poverty and supporting education.

“It was intended to reduce poverty and help children attend school. Where is the money now?” he asked.

Atiku said the government had succeeded in removing the subsidy but had not demonstrated to Nigerians where the resulting resources had gone.

“It seems they are just stealing it,” he alleged.

Atiku said one of the reasons for his decision to restore the subsidy would be the need to reduce the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.

The former vice president was asked what he would do for vulnerable Nigerians amid severe economic hardship, food scarcity and other difficulties.

He responded by pointing to the funds he believed should have been used to improve the living conditions of Nigerians.

“They talk about 30 trillion, where is the money, what was done with it?” he asked.

Atiku said the resources should have been channelled into programmes capable of reducing poverty, unemployment and insecurity.

He argued that the removal of the subsidy would have produced a different outcome if the government had used the money for development.

“If they had used the money for development, to solve security problems, for education, and to create opportunities for the youth, it would be different,” he said.

Atiku also linked his position to youth unemployment and the need to provide young Nigerians with opportunities to become economically independent.

He recalled that during the last presidential election, he proposed setting aside $10bn to provide young people with capital for various businesses.

“At that time, when we calculated it, we estimated that allocating $10 billion… the programs we could build for the youth would ultimately reduce hardship for nearly 70 to 80 percent of the beneficiaries through the programs we intended to run,” he said.

Atiku questioned why similar resources had not been used to reduce youth unemployment and hardship.

“Steps should have been taken to reduce poverty, curb youth unemployment, and tackle insecurity, among other issues,” he said.

Atiku also identified insecurity as another area where he believed the resources from subsidy removal should have been deployed.

He said government should have used the funds to address the country’s security challenges while also investing in education and economic opportunities.

“The government successfully removed the subsidy, but we do not know where the money went,” he said.

He argued that the policy itself could have been handled differently if the savings had been properly applied.

“If they had used the money for development, to solve security problems, for education, and to create opportunities for the youth, it would be different,” Atiku said.

Atiku said his objection was not simply to the removal of the subsidy but to what he described as the failure to use the resulting resources to improve Nigerians’ lives.

He maintained that if elected, he would restore the subsidy and ensure the resources were used to address the challenges he identified.

“If elected, I will bring back the oil subsidy, and whoever stole the money must refund it,” he said.

He added, “If elected, I can remove the subsidy and use the money to do all these properly.”

Atiku’s latest comments come amid an intensifying political dispute with the President Bola Tinubu administration over the economic consequences of the 2023 petrol subsidy removal.

Tinubu announced the removal shortly after taking office, and Atiku has recently challenged the Federal Government to account for the resources generated by the policy.

The subsidy has subsequently become a major issue in the 2027 political contest. Atiku has insisted that he will restore it if elected, while a presidential aide has criticised his proposal and argued that it could create fiscal problems for the government.

The Federal Government has also defended the removal of the subsidy, while the debate has expanded to questions over how the additional resources generated by the policy have been used.

Recent reports by PUNCH Online cited the Finance Minister, Taiwo Oyedele, as saying the removal mobilised N15.8tn in resources for the Federation between June 2023 and December 2025.