Paul Ibe, media adviser to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has criticised the Federal Government’s 30-day petrol price reduction initiative, arguing that it would not provide adequate relief to Nigerians because of the limited reach of NNPC retail outlets.
Ibe, who disclosed this in a post on his X handle on Friday, said the government should prioritise making petrol affordable nationwide rather than engaging in arguments over whether the price reduction amounted to a subsidy or a discount.
“Nigerians need relief, not semantics,” he said, accusing the President Bola Tinubu administration of focusing more on terminology than on addressing the economic hardship faced by citizens.
While welcoming any genuine reduction in petrol prices, Ibe insisted that the relief must be fair, accessible and sustainable.
He argued that the limited geographical spread of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) retail outlets would prevent many Nigerians from benefiting from the initiative.
According to him, Nigeria has approximately 22,681 filling stations, while NNPC operates more than 900 outlets, representing about four per cent of the nationwide retail network.
He added that NNPC’s estimated retail market share stood at 17 per cent in 2024, while the company’s July 2026 report showed petrol availability across its retail network at 52 per cent.
Ibe questioned how the government intended to deliver meaningful nationwide relief through a network with limited coverage and documented supply challenges.
“How does the government propose to provide meaningful nationwide relief through a network with such limited geographical coverage and documented supply challenges?” he asked.
He also questioned what would happen to Nigerians living in communities without NNPC stations, arguing that they might have to travel long distances and incur additional expenses to benefit from the discount.
The former vice-president’s aide warned that the arrangement could create unequal access to affordable petrol, drawing a comparison with the electricity Band A, B and C classification, under which consumers face different service conditions depending on their locations and tariff categories.
“Petrol affordability must not become another postcode lottery,” he said.
Ibe maintained that, regardless of whether NNPC forfeited its retail margin or the government directly subsidised consumers, the initiative amounted to an acknowledgement that market forces alone could not shield Nigerians from high petrol prices.
He argued that the administration was attempting to address a nationwide affordability crisis through a retail network representing only a small fraction of the country’s filling stations.
“Nigerians deserve more than a 30-day experiment,” he said.
Ibe advocated Atiku’s proposed production-based subsidy, which he said would reduce costs at the point of production and allow the benefits to flow through the wider distribution network.
He argued that such an approach would offer a more sustainable way to make petrol affordable across the country.
“You cannot solve a nationwide affordability crisis with a narrowly targeted discount. Nigerians need cheaper petrol everywhere, not cheaper petrol somewhere, and certainly not for just 30 days,” he said.
Ibe further accused the Tinubu administration of moving back towards what he described as an opaque subsidy regime, despite its earlier position that the petrol subsidy had been removed.
The post What happens to Nigerians living in communities without NNPC stations? – Atiku’s aide faults 30-day petrol discount appeared first on Vanguard News.