DANGOTE STRIKES AGAIN: NIGERIANS GROAN AS PETROL PRICE HITS N1,175 PER LITRE IN THIRD HIKE WITHIN SEVEN DAYS

DANGOTE STRIKES AGAIN: NIGERIANS GROAN AS PETROL PRICE HITS N1,175 PER LITRE IN THIRD HIKE WITHIN SEVEN DAYS. It is happening again. And again. And again. Just when Nigerians thought they had caught their breath, the Dangote Refinery has delivered yet another blow to the gut — raising the pump price of petrol to N1,175 per litre in what is now the third price hike within a single week. Three hikes. Seven days. One refinery. A nation in pain.Let that sink in for a moment.

The refinery that was sold to Nigerians as the messiah of the downstream sector — the game-changer that would end fuel scarcity, crush the stranglehold of NNPCL, and make petrol affordable for the ordinary man — is now leading the charge in pricing millions of struggling Nigerians out of basic mobility and economic survival.When Aliko Dangote’s mega-refinery came on stream, there was genuine excitement across the country. Here was a private sector solution to a decades-old national embarrassment. Here was Africa’s richest man putting his money where his mouth was. Petrol prices, we were told, would crash. The naira would find meaning at the pump. Nigeria would finally refine its own crude and keep the wealth at home.But what is happening today is a far cry from that dream.N1,175 per litre. Third hike in one week. No explanation. No apology. No press conference. Just a number on a board that ordinary Nigerians — the keke driver, the bread seller, the civil servant trekking to the bus stop — must now absorb into their already shattered daily budgets.This is not just a fuel price story. This is an economic emergency wearing a business suit.

Transportation costs will rise. Food prices will spike. Logistics will become more expensive. Small businesses will bleed. And as always in this country, it is the bottom of the pyramid that will carry the heaviest load while those at the top debate market forces and deregulation in air-conditioned offices.The federal government must wake up and speak. Silence is not an option when a single private refinery is dictating the pace of economic suffering for over 200 million people. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) must tell Nigerians what regulatory framework is governing these price movements. Are there no guardrails? Is this a fully deregulated free-for-all where a monopoly-scale player can adjust prices three times in seven days without consequence?

Deregulation was meant to introduce competition, not hand one billionaire the power to set the economic temperature of an entire nation. Nigeria deserves answers. And it deserves them now.