NIGERIA PERSPECTIVE

Vanguard Nigeria documents a cruel paradox: Nigeria is a major oil producer (OPEC member), yet Nigerians pay 1,330 naira per liter for gasoline—despite price drops announced by Dangote refinery. The article explains that marketers (private distributors) maintain high prices independent of national production costs. Nigerian crude exports at $117 per barrel, a record, but the country imports much of its refined products. This is the "resource curse" in pure form: Nigeria sells crude at premium prices and rebuts gasoline at even higher prices. Vanguard also reports Trump's "go to Hormuz and get your own oil" rant with a headline capturing the absurdity for an African producer: Nigeria needs no Hormuz for its oil, but its own refinery cannot cover national demand. Nigeria illustrates a paradox only Global South producers know. When oil rises, state revenues increase—but consumers suffer because the country does not refine enough. The Dangote refinery, inaugurated with fanfare, was supposed to solve this. It does not: its capacity falls short of national demand, and distributors maintain margins independent of production costs. The phrase "resource curse" is not metaphor—it is Nigeria's economic model. The Hormuz war simply amplified a fifty-year structural flaw.