Paul Ibe, media adviser to Atiku Abubakar, has criticised Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, over his comparison of petrol prices in Nigeria and the United States.
Ibe said on Wednesday that comparing pump prices without considering workers’ earnings gives an incomplete picture of petrol affordability in both countries.
He said a Nigerian earning ₦70,000 monthly can buy only 50 litres of petrol at about ₦1,400 per litre, using the entire monthly wage.
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By comparison, Ibe said four weeks of earnings at the US federal minimum wage can buy about 981 litres at prevailing American pump prices.
“Comparison of petrol prices in Nigeria and the U.S. is a textbook example of how statistics can obscure economic reality when stripped of income and purchasing power,” Ibe said.
Ibe cites cost of living
Ibe said the difference becomes more significant when other household expenses are considered.
He listed food, transport, rent, electricity and healthcare among the expenses competing for the income of Nigerian workers.
He also said Nigeria’s dependence on road transportation and generators means petrol prices affect costs outside filling stations.
According to Ibe, higher petrol costs feed into the prices of food, transportation, production and other household expenses.
He said the important question should be how many litres of petrol an average Nigerian can buy from earnings and how much money is left after basic needs.
“A government cannot establish that petrol is affordable simply by converting the pump price into dollars and pointing to another country where the nominal price happens to be higher,” he said.
Ibe said petrol affordability should be examined alongside income, purchasing power and the cost of living.
He also called for figures showing petrol costs as a share of wages, real household income, food inflation, transport costs, unemployment, poverty levels and purchasing power.
Ibe questioned whether the average Nigerian household is better off and said the government’s economic record should be assessed using the full cost-of-living figures.
“Nigerians deserve economic arguments grounded in what families can actually afford, not comparisons that look reassuring only when wages and living costs are left out,” he said.
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