By Kingston Magare 23.9.2026
Nigeria’s minister of petroleum resources, Heineken Lokpobiri’s claims that petrol price per litre is cheaper than it is obtained in the USA has been poopooed by African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s media aide.
According to Paul Ibe no Nigerian will buy into Mr. Lokpobiri’s submission except those who supporting the harsh economic policies of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Mr Lokpobiri during an appearance on Channels TV had claimed that N1,400 per litre was cheap compared to prices in America. He also stated that government cannot intervene to bring the prices down to N1,000, N800 or N700 per litre because of global oil market trends.
“Minister Heineken Lokpobiri’s comparison of petrol prices in Nigeria and the United States is a textbook example of how statistics can obscure economic reality when stripped of income and purchasing power,” Mr. Ibe wrote on his X
“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?
At about ₦1,400 per litre, Nigeria’s ₦70,000 minimum wage buys only 50 litres of petrol. By contrast, four weeks of earnings at the US federal minimum wage can buy roughly 981 litres at prevailing American pump prices.
“And 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.”