Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, over his comparison of petrol price in Nigeria to that of the United States.
Lokpobiri had while appearing on Channels Television, said petrol was cheaper in Nigeria than in the US.
He said: “Our (petrol) price is lower than that of the US. The United States is the highest producer of crude oil and one of the countries with the highest level of refineries. Today, the price in the US is higher than that of Nigeria.”
Reacting through his media aide, Paul Ibe, Atiku said the comparison fails to take into account income levels and purchasing power in both countries.
Ibe said comparing pump prices without considering what workers earn presents an incomplete picture of fuel affordability.
“Telling a Nigerian earning ₦70,000 a month that petrol is cheaper because an American pays a higher dollar price per litre ignores the question that actually matters: how much petrol can each worker afford from their earnings?” he said.
According to him, petrol sold at about ₦1,400 per litre means a worker earning ₦70,000 monthly can afford about 50 litres.
He contrasted this with the purchasing capacity of a worker earning the US federal minimum wage, claiming that four weeks of such earnings could purchase roughly 981 litres of petrol at prevailing American pump prices.
Ibe argued that the comparison should therefore focus on the proportion of income spent on petrol rather than the nominal price of a litre in each country.
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He said Nigerian households were also facing increased costs of food, transportation, rent, electricity and healthcare, while the naira had lost purchasing power.
“Because Nigeria depends heavily on road transportation and generators, expensive petrol does not stop at the filling station. It feeds directly into the price of food, transportation, production and virtually every other household expense,” he added.
The former vice president’s aide questioned whether the average Nigerian household was better off under the current economic conditions.
He said government officials should publish data on petrol costs as a share of wages, real household income, food inflation, transport costs, unemployment, poverty and purchasing power when defending the country’s economic performance.
“Affordability is measured against income, purchasing power and the cost of living. Any comparison that leaves those out is economically incomplete,” Ibe said.
He added that Nigerians deserved economic arguments based on what households could actually afford rather than international price comparisons that did not account for differences in wages and living costs.
Ibe described such comparisons as “Animal Farm” figures and said the government should base its defence of its economic record on broader cost-of-living indicators.
