Fuel Price Pain in Nigeria: Is Tinubu’s Kenya Comparison the New Normal for Citizens?

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent remark that Nigerians should “listen to Kenya” and thank God they are better off despite soaring fuel prices has struck a raw nerve across the country. With petrol now selling between ₦1,227 and ₦1,295 per litre in major cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite hard three years after the bold removal of fuel subsidies in May 2023.

The policy, introduced shortly after Tinubu took office, was meant to free up funds for infrastructure and social investment. Instead, it triggered a chain reaction: transport fares doubled, food prices skyrocketed and millions of small businesses struggled under higher operating costs. What began as “temporary sacrifice” now feels permanent to many households. Daily commuters in Lagos traffic, market women in Kano and commercial drivers in Enugu all tell the same story — the pump price directly determines what they eat and whether they can send children to school.

Tinubu’s comparison to Kenya, where pump prices hover around the equivalent of ₦1,862 per litre, may be factually correct. Yet it offers cold comfort. Kenyans are not Nigerians, and comparative suffering has never been an acceptable benchmark for governance. Opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, have already slammed the statement as insensitive, arguing that citizens expect relief, not regional scorecards.

The bigger question is whether this administration now accepts fuel-price agony as Nigeria’s new normal. Three years of hardship, broken promises on palliatives and repeated global oil shocks have tested public patience. Nigerians do not need lectures on who suffers more elsewhere — they need practical, urgent solutions that put money back in their pockets and restore hope at the pump. Until then, telling citizens to “look around” only deepens the sense of disconnect.