Businessman and political commentator, Isaac Fayose, has challenged Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo’s comparison of petrol prices in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
Okpebholo had said in a viral video that he recently travelled to London, where he checked the price of petrol and found that it was about N3,000 per litre after converting the cost to naira.
The governor used the comparison to argue that the administration of President Bola Tinubu was making progress in stabilising the Nigerian economy.
However, Fayose, while reacting in a video, said comparing petrol prices without considering the income and living conditions of workers in both countries presented an incomplete picture.
He noted that Nigeria’s minimum wage was N70,000, arguing that a worker earning that amount could afford only about 49 litres of petrol with a month’s salary.
Fayose contrasted this with the UK, where he said the minimum wage was between £13 and £15 per hour, which could translate to about £2,000 monthly or roughly N4m.
He also pointed to differences in public services, saying workers in the UK had access to healthcare, better roads and more stable electricity.
Fayose consequently criticised the governor’s comparison, questioning the basis for using petrol prices alone to assess economic conditions in the two countries.
