As Nigeria prepares for the 2027 general elections, political actors have continued to debate Bola Tinubu's 2023 electoral performance and the impact of his administration's economic policies. On September 15, 2026, Solomon Dalung, former Minister of Sports Development, and Bala Ibrahim, Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress (APC), appeared on Channels Television's Politics Today. They made claims about Tinubu's 2023 votes and the price of petrol in Nigeria compared with the United Kingdom.
Dalung claimed that over 5.5 million of Tinubu's 8.7 million total votes came predominantly from Northern Nigeria. According to the official results of the 2023 presidential election released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes nationwide. Data compiled by TheCable shows Tinubu received about 2.64 million votes in the North-West, 1.76 million in the North-Central, and 1.19 million in the North-East.
The combined figures from the three northern geopolitical zones amount to approximately 5.59 million votes, representing about 63.6% of Tinubu's total votes nationwide. This verifies Dalung's claim that more than 5.5 million of Tinubu's 8.79 million votes came from the northern part of the country. The influence of former President Buhari on these votes was also noted.
Ibrahim claimed petrol is cheaper in Nigeria than in the UK, where petrol costs approximately £1.70 per litre. DUBAWA found that while direct currency conversion makes Nigerian petrol cheaper per litre than the UK's, the claim ignores the gap between both countries' minimum wages. The average UK petrol price stood at £1.71 per litre as of September 15, 2026.
In contrast, Nigeria's statutory national minimum wage is N70,000 per month, while the UK government said the national living wage for workers aged 21 and above increased to £12.71 per hour as of April 1, 2026. Using an eight-hour workday calculation, a person earning the minimum wage in the UK would take home £1,880 per month.
A litre of fuel would cost a UK worker around eight minutes of his working time, while a Nigerian worker would spend about three hours to buy a single litre, which costs around N1,340 to N1,395 in major Nigerian cities. This means that although petrol is nominally cheaper in Nigeria than in the UK when converted using the exchange rate, it takes up a much larger share of a Nigerian minimum-wage worker's earnings.
Therefore, describing petrol as simply "cheaper" in Nigeria is misleading without accounting for purchasing power or income levels. The comparison matters because a litre of petrol costing less in naira than its pound equivalent does not mean it is more affordable for the average Nigerian worker. This fact-check was conducted by DUBAWA, a fact-checking organization.
Key points
- More than 5.5 million of Tinubu's 8.79 million votes came from the three northern geopolitical zones.
- Petrol is nominally cheaper in Nigeria than in the UK, but it takes up a larger share of a Nigerian minimum-wage worker's earnings.
- The comparison of petrol prices between Nigeria and the UK should account for purchasing power or income levels.
