Atiku Abubakar has challenged the comparison drawn by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, between petrol prices in Nigeria and the United States, arguing that pump prices alone do not show how affordable fuel is to citizens.

The former Vice President, through his media aide, Paul Ibe, said the assessment failed to account for the wide difference in earnings and purchasing power between Nigerian and American workers. Lokpobiri had said on Channels Television’s Politics Today that petrol was cheaper in Nigeria than in the United States and some other countries.

Ibe said a more useful assessment should consider how much petrol a worker can purchase from their income. He cited the N70,000 minimum wage in Nigeria, saying petrol priced at about N1,400 per litre would amount to roughly 50 litres from one month’s wages.

He contrasted this with the purchasing capacity of a worker earning the US federal minimum wage, claiming that four weeks of earnings could buy about 981 litres of petrol at prevailing American prices. Ibe argued that comparing the nominal cost of a litre without considering wages gives an incomplete picture of fuel affordability.

The aide also linked petrol costs to wider household expenses, including transportation, food, electricity, healthcare and production, particularly because of Nigeria’s reliance on road transportation and petrol-powered generators. He said economic assessments should therefore consider indicators such as real household income, food and transport costs, unemployment, poverty and purchasing power.

The dispute comes as the Federal Government continues to defend the deregulated downstream petroleum market. Lokpobiri has maintained that crude oil and refined petroleum products are globally traded commodities, arguing that government cannot simply dictate pump prices without returning to a subsidy regime.