Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of presiding over a decline in agricultural export earnings while farmers face insecurity and manufacturers contend with high production costs.

Atiku made the accusation in a statement issued on Wednesday by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council.

He said the agricultural trade figures showed that Nigeria’s agricultural trade moved from a ₦740.27 billion surplus in the first half of 2025 to a ₦56.13 billion deficit in the first half of 2026, representing a ₦796.40 billion reversal.

“Tinubu cannot call this reform when the people who grow our food and the businesses that should process it are being squeezed from both sides,” Atiku said.

According to him, agricultural exports fell by 33.3 per cent, while imports also declined.

“The excuse that Nigerians simply imported too much will not stand. Tinubu’s government must answer for the collapse in what Nigeria sold to the world. The country is losing export earnings, and the President owes farmers, workers and businesses more than another speech about prosperity,” he said.

Atiku questioned what the administration had done to improve security for farmers, reduce the cost of moving agricultural produce and make local processing and manufacturing more viable.

“What has his administration done to make it safer to farm, cheaper to move produce, easier to keep a processing plant running or more profitable to sell a finished Nigerian product? Farmers cannot cultivate promises. Manufacturers cannot power factories with speeches. Workers cannot feed their families on assurances that prosperity is coming,” he said.

The former vice president said Nigeria’s leading agricultural exports still include cashew nuts in shell and cocoa beans, arguing that greater domestic processing could enable the country to retain more value from its agricultural products.

“We grow the crop. Someone else does more of the processing, builds a business around it and earns the larger return. Then Tinubu speaks of jobs while Nigerian factories struggle to compete. He has made production expensive and called the resulting hardship reform,” Atiku said.

He added that the administration should take responsibility for the country’s agricultural trade performance.

“A trade deficit alone does not explain every problem on our farms. But after more than three years in office, the President owns the decisions that have left farmers exposed and producers burdened. He cannot claim credit for every favourable statistic and disown a ₦796.40 billion reversal when the figures turn against him.”

Atiku also defended his proposed production subsidy for petroleum products refined in Nigeria, saying it would support qualifying products from Nigerian refineries, including modular refineries, while imported products would not qualify.

He said the subsidy would be capped, budgeted and independently audited, with measures to determine whether savings reach consumers and businesses.

Atiku also criticised the Tinubu administration’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative, describing it as an ineffective relief measure.

He said the cost of converting vehicles remained beyond the reach of many poor Nigerians, while conversion kits were difficult to access and buses presented as palliatives remained unavailable to many people who needed them.

“Local refining is about more than the price at the petrol pump. Aviation fuel affects fares. LPG affects the cost of cooking. Petroleum products and feedstocks affect industries and the people they employ. Nigerians need practical relief they can actually access—not schemes whose costs and shortages put the promised benefits out of reach. The value of our resources must reach Nigerians beyond the refinery gate,” he said.

Atiku said his administration, if elected, would restore a production subsidy from its first day in office.

“My administration will begin restoring a transparent production subsidy from Day One. We will back farmers and processors with the same determination. Grow it here. Process it here. Refine it here. Create the jobs here. Make life affordable here,” he said.

He further accused the Tinubu administration of failing to sufficiently translate Nigeria’s natural and agricultural resources into affordable products and employment opportunities.

“Tinubu’s record is becoming painfully clear: Nigeria supplies raw crops and crude oil while Nigerians pay dearly for finished goods. A government that cannot turn our resources into affordable products and decent jobs has failed the people it was elected to serve,” Atiku said.

(THISDAY)

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