Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Former Vice President and presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, faulted Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, over his comparison of fuel prices and subsidies in Nigeria and the United States.
There had been a controversy over the appropriate price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and the removal of fuel subsidy.
Atiku, in a statement by his media aide, Paul Ibe, said the minister’s comparison of petrol prices in Nigeria and the United States was a textbook example of how statistics could obscure economic reality when stripped of income and purchasing power.
According to Atiku, “Telling a Nigerian earning N70,000 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?”
Atiku further said, “At about N1,400 per litre, Nigeria’s N70,000 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.”
He explained, “That is the comparison Nigerians should be looking at. Americans may pay a higher nominal price for petrol, but they also earn substantially more.
“Nigerians are buying petrol from wages already battered and shattered by high food prices, transport costs, rent, electricity, healthcare and the collapse in the purchasing power of the naira.
“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.
“So, the real question is not whether a litre of petrol costs more in America. The real questions are: how many litres can the average Nigerian afford from his income?
“How much is left after food, rent and transportation? Absolutely nothing. Indeed, it leaves a deficit!”
Atiku asked, “And is the average Nigerian household better off today? 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 affordability was measured against income, purchasing power, and the cost of living, stressing, “Any comparison that leaves those out is economically incomplete.
“And this is where accountability must begin. Instead of celebrating favourable international price comparisons, government officials should publish the figures that actually reflect the lived economy: petrol as a share of wages, real household income, food inflation, transport costs, unemployment, poverty levels and purchasing power.”
Atiku said Nigerians deserved economic arguments grounded in what families could actually afford, rather than comparisons that looked reassuring only when wages and living costs were left out.
The former vice president said, “If the government wants to defend its economic record, it should do so on the full cost-of-living numbers.
“Those are the numbers that matter to ordinary Nigerians and not the ‘Animal Farm’ numbers being bandied about by Tinubu and his officials.”