BUHARI'S PUMP PRICE COMPARISON LACKS DECENT DETAILS & VALIDITY: EXPERT

The President of the federal republic of Nigeria Mohammadu Buhari during his speech of the epoch event of the October 1st independent day celebration of 60years existence, as a means of celebrating the events, activities were held at eagle square, Abuja. One of the notable event that captured interests and drew reactions from the general populace is in the presidents speech about his comparism of oil prices amidst producing states.

The President in a desperate attempt to justify the increament in pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS), the President resort to drawing comparism of pump prices around the world, claiming it makes no sense for the product to be sold lesser in Nigeria than countries especially in Saudi Arabia whethe prices per pump is far way higher or even double price in other countries.

In his words, he plainly stated that;

"Government must face realities and take tough decisions. Petroleum prices in Nigeria are to be adjusted. We sell now at N161 per litre. A comparison with our neighbours will illustrate the point; a. Chad which is an oil producing country charges N362 per litre b. Niger, also an oil producing country sells 1 litre at N346. c. In Ghana, another oil producing country, petroleum pump price is N326 per litre. Further afield, Egypt charges N211 per litre. Saudi Arabia charges N168 per litre. It makes no sense for oil to be cheaper in Nigeria than in Saudi Arabia"

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But immediately after his line of thoughts, trust Nigerians to react and quickly remind Mr President how dependent  the country is on oil. Urging him not to conveniently choose to ignore the huge disparity in standard of living of citizens of this countries he mentioned in contrast to Nigeria. Minimum wages the same either, the level at which the government responds to citizens need in those countries cannot be compared to that of Nigeria.

For better understanding, minimum wage in Egypt is #53,000, while in Saudi Arabia its #366,000. Also, citizens in these countries are not responsible for other expenses that the government should have provided, fuel consumption in Nigeria isn't limited to automobile users only, no generator to power, no personal water supply system, no high electricity tariff saddled with epileptic supplies in the countries the president choose to compare it pump price to Nigeria 

Also, fuel consumption rate in these countries differs, none of the afore mentioned countries consume Nigerians quantity either daily, weekly, monthly or on a yearly basis. Both countries consumption couldn't measure up to Nigerians consumption rate by any means. So it seems Mr President summation on the comparism lack deep and relevant investigations. Should our government embark on such comparism game to justify their actions, they should also embark on it to improve our society and standard of living as well just the way they were in those countries 

i rest my pen.