Atiku Is Asking About Day 31; Nigerians Are Asking About Today

By Chinedu Anselem Nebeife,
Director, Media & Strategy,
Tinubu Support Group (TSG), South-East

Ask a commercial bus driver in Awka or a trader at Onitsha Main Market what fuel costs them, and you won’t get a lecture on fiscal frameworks. You’ll hear about fares, about the generator, about what it costs to move goods from one town to the next.

That is the test every fuel policy must pass; not the speeches, but the pump.

By that test, President Tinubu’s 30-day petrol discount at NNPC outlets is a government hearing its people and acting. And for a transport operator who fills up daily, the savings accruing from the discount is real money, today.

Now, Atiku Abubakar asks what happens when the 30 days end. It is a fair question, and the answer is simple: this relief is a bridge, not the destination.

The reform that ended the old subsidy regime stands because the alternative was a system that consumed public funds while schools, roads and hospitals waited.

Relief cushions the shock, while reform builds the road. And Nigerians should not be asked to choose between them.

The government has made it clear that its reform records are open to scrutiny and that a bridge must also be measured. Now, a government that invites scrutiny of its results is a government confident in them.

Atiku Abubakar says the government borrowed his production-support proposal. But Nigerians don’t vote on who spoke first. They ask who delivers. Moreover, his proposal raises questions he has yet to answer. Crude sold to refiners below market value is a subsidy by another name, so who pays for it? How is eligible production verified? What guarantees that a cheaper barrel becomes a cheaper litre at the pump? A promise on paper has never filled a tank.

The Tinubu administration has acted, while Atiku Abubakar, after decades at the centre of Nigerian politics, is still proposing. This point needs to be noted carefully.

In the South-East our economy runs on movement: goods from Onitsha, Nnewi and Aba, traders on the road, small businesses powered by generators. When fuel costs fall, fares can fall, haulage can fall, and the price of what we eat can ease. When relief is announced but never felt, it fails.

That is why we are asking people to watch the numbers, not the noise. Check the pump price, check your fare, check the market, and judge the results.

Nigerians, today, are faced with two clear choices. The choice to choose a government that is reforming, responding and open to being measured, or a challenger offering a promise with no price tag.

Relief is not retreat, neither is reform an excuse for hardship. But more importantly, the only verdict that truly matters is the one delivered in the lives of the people. And that is the focus of the Tinubu-Shettima administration.

*Vote Tinubu-Shettima for a well deserved second term*