The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has declared that Nigerians are too poor to be left at the mercy of market forces, promising to subsidise crude oil production to make petrol more affordable if it wins the 2027 general election.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, stated this on Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, while explaining the party’s position on fuel subsidy.

Abdullahi said the party’s presidential candidate, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, believed the government should intervene in the petroleum sector to ease the burden of rising fuel prices on citizens.

“The most important point is that the ADC and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar are saying that Nigerians are too poor to be left to market forces. We cannot have people so poor and leave them without subsidy. So, we are going to subsidise production,” he said.

Explaining the proposed policy, the ADC spokesman argued that Nigeria’s status as an oil-producing country provided an opportunity for the government to intervene in production costs and ensure the delivery of cheaper fuel to consumers.

“You can ask us, where would the crude oil come from? We are an oil-producing country. Whatever we need to do to subsidise the production of crude and deliver cheaper fuel to Nigerians, we are going to do it,” Abdullahi said.

Using a wartime analogy, he maintained that protecting citizens’ welfare should take precedence over strict adherence to market pricing when the country faces serious economic challenges.

“When your country is at war, you do not begin to talk about the price of guns and the price of bullets; you defend your country by all means necessary. So ADC and Atiku Abubakar are saying, we will defend the people by all means necessary,” he added.

Abdullahi further argued that governments should reconsider policies that fail to improve the welfare, security and well-being of citizens.

“Anything that you do as a government, any policy option that you choose as a government that does not improve the well-being and the security, and the welfare of the people, has to be reconsidered,” he said.

The proposed subsidy policy forms part of the ADC’s stated approach to addressing fuel affordability ahead of the 2027 general election.