Atiku Abubakar’s Subsidy Pitch

Nigerians wanted an issue-based campaign ahead of the 2027 presidential elections. And from all indications, they appear to have gotten one.
ADC candidate, Atiku Abubakar ’s proposal to restore fuel subsidy, should he win the presidency, struck at the very core of one of the most consequential and controversial policies of the Bola Tinubu APC-led government: the removal of petrol subsidy.
For an opposition seeking to defeat an incumbent party, policy contradictions must be pursued relentlessly. Atiku found a pressure point that goes directly into the kitchen, farm, factory, classroom, and hospital. He needed to keep pressing it.
Politically, it was a smart opening. Economically, it...