Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has criticised President Bola Tinubu over his rejection of calls for a return of petrol subsidy, proposing targeted support for locally refined petroleum products to ease the economic hardship facing Nigerians.

Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, made his position known in a statement issued on Tuesday by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council.

He faulted Tinubu for defending the removal of petrol subsidy, accusing the President of being insensitive to the difficulties Nigerians face amid rising food prices, transportation costs and other living expenses.

Atiku said Tinubu’s comparison of calls for fuel subsidy relief to asking Moses to return to Egypt demonstrated a lack of understanding of the economic realities confronting ordinary Nigerians.

“You are the Egypt Nigerians are desperate to escape. You celebrate the day you made fuel more expensive, then lecture families struggling to pay for food and transport about why they must never go back,” he said.

The former Vice-President also accused Tinubu of using religious references to deflect attention from the economic consequences of his policies.

“At least Pharaoh knew he was holding people captive. Tinubu watches families cut meals, workers spend their salaries on transport, and businesses struggle to keep their lights on, then tells them a story about Moses,” Atiku said.

He argued that Nigerians needed practical economic interventions to make essential goods and services more affordable rather than biblical comparisons.

Atiku proposed limited and carefully monitored financial support for petroleum products refined locally, insisting that the intervention should directly benefit consumers.

“My proposal is clear: give limited, budgeted support only to verified petroleum products refined in Nigeria and sold to Nigerians,” he said.

“Imported fuel gets nothing. Independent auditors must track every naira, and the benefit must reach consumers in the price they pay. If it does not lower that price, it has failed its purpose.”

Atiku also criticised the Tinubu administration’s handling of insecurity, arguing that the President could no longer shift responsibility for persistent attacks, kidnappings and other security challenges to his predecessor.

He referred to comments by Abdulaziz Yari, identified in the statement as Tinubu’s campaign director-general, who questioned what the President could do about insecurity when the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired general, had failed to eliminate the problem.

Atiku countered that leadership and the ability to tackle insecurity should not be measured by military background, citing the late former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as an example.

“Let me remind them that President Yar’Adua was not a sergeant, yet he stamped it out,” he said.

The ADC presidential candidate maintained that Nigerians expected the President to confront armed groups, rescue abducted citizens and secure roads, farms and communities.

“If Tinubu cannot tell them how he will do that after more than three years in office, he has no business asking for four more years,” Atiku said.

“The lives lost under his watch are not an argument about his predecessor. They are an indictment of his own leadership.”

Atiku said Nigerians deserved affordable fuel, safer communities and improved welfare for security personnel, stressing that the government must provide tangible solutions to the country’s economic and security challenges.

“For millions of Nigerians, Egypt is the hunger, fear and indignity they are living through under you,” he stated.