Former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has delivered a blistering verdict on Nigeria's surging petrol and diesel prices, blaming the crisis entirely on the government's failure to plan — and warning that Nigeria will remain permanently vulnerable to global shocks for as long as the country refuses to build strategic petroleum reserves.
In a statement posted on his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle on Thursday, March 12, 2026, Obi pointed directly at the ongoing US-Iran war as the latest proof that Nigeria has no buffer against external economic shocks — and that ordinary Nigerians pay the price every time the world sneezes.
Obi wrote: "A few weeks ago, petrol was selling for less than ₦1,000 per litre, but today it costs over ₦1,200 per litre. Diesel, which was also priced below ₦1,000 per litre, is now over ₦1,500 per litre. These rapid increases illustrate how quickly external shocks can affect the Nigerian economy."
From ₦799 To ₦1,300 In Two Weeks — The Numbers tells the story
The numbers behind Obi's alarm are stark. Before February 28, 2026 — the day the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes on Iran, triggering the ongoing Middle East war — petrol at Dangote Refinery was being sold at the gantry for approximately ₦799 per litre. Within days of the war beginning, that price began to climb rapidly.
By March 3, Dangote Refinery had raised its gantry price to ₦995 per litre. By the following Friday, it went up again. By Monday March 9 — just eleven days after the war began — the Dangote Refinery raised its gantry price a third time in a single week, to ₦1,175 per litre, a jump of approximately 18% from the previous revision. At the pump, Nigerians in Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan and other cities were paying between ₦1,250 and ₦1,350 per litre — with some stations charging as high as ₦1,400 per litre.
Diesel told an even grimmer story. MRS outlets in Lagos were selling diesel at ₦1,380 per litre while NNPC Limited outlets were charging as high as ₦1,680 per litre. The price of crude oil oninternational markets had surged to over $110 per barrel — up from around $64.85 at which Nigeria's 2026 budget had been benchmarked — as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran created what the International Energy Agency described as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.
PETROAN — the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria — went further in its warning, saying petrol could reach ₦2,000 per litre and diesel ₦3,000 per litre if the Iran war continues and global crude prices remain elevated.
Obi's Diagnosis: No Buffer, No Planning
Planning
At the heart of Obi's statement is a straightforward argument: Nigeria is uniquely exposed to global oil price shocks because it has never built the institutional buffers that most serious oil-producing nations maintain as standard policy.
Obi explained: "The reason for this is straightforward: most countries, whether they are oil-producing or non-oil-producing, maintain strategic petroleum reserves to cushion against supply or price shocks. This means that when there is a disruption in the global oil market, they can release part of these reserves to stabilise supply. However, Nigeria lacks such a buffer, so the impact is felt almost immediately."
The former Anambra Governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate noted that even non-oil-producing countries — nations that do not have a single barrel of crude oil in the ground — are better insulated against oil price shocks than Nigeria, simply because they plan and maintain strategic reserves. Nigeria, despite being Africa's largest oil producer and one of the top ten oil producers in the world, has no such reserve — and no mechanism to cushion its people from the inevitable volatility of global energy markets.
Obi closed with one of his signature maxims: "The underlying issue is a lack of planning. Countries that engage in planning create buffers against shocks, while those that do not remain vulnerable to them. The old maxim remains true: when a country fails to plan, it has already planned to fail."
NLC Condemns Dangote's Repeated Price Hikes
Obi's condemnation came amid growing fury from organised labour and the private sector at the speed and frequency of the price increases. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) issued a sharp statement condemning Dangote Refinery's repeated petrol price hikes, calling them insensitive at a time when Nigerian workers are already under severe economic pressure from inflation, a weakened naira, and rising food prices.
NLC President Joe Ajaero said a registered private company should not be in a position to unilaterally dictate fuel prices for all Nigerians, and called on the Federal Government to intervene. The NLC's intervention was notable because it follows growing tension between organised labour and the Tinubu administration over the removal of the fuel subsidy in 2023 — a policy that Peter Obi, the NLC, and many civil society groups had warned would leave Nigerians permanently exposed to exactly this kind of international price shock.
Businesses Sound Alarm — Inflation Fears Mount
