“Average Nigerian Can Survive on N3,000 Daily” — Tinubu’s Ambassador Reno Omokri Says

Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Reno Omokri, has said an average Nigerian can survive on N3,000 daily, arguing that poverty should be assessed within the economic realities of individual countries.

Omokri made the statement while appearing on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, where he discussed the rising cost of living and international poverty benchmarks. The remark was reported by multiple Nigerian media outlets on Sunday and Monday.

The ambassador-designate said he had personally visited markets with a journalist, without security personnel, to check the prices of basic food items including yam, rice, maize and fruits.

According to Omokri, his assessment showed that N3,000 could sustain an average Nigerian for a day.

“I went there with one journalist, no security, and I stopped along the way, and I priced goods. I priced yam, I priced rice, I priced maize, I priced fruits. In Nigeria, people can live on that amount in a day,” he said.

He, however, noted that the same amount would represent poverty in the United States because of differences in the cost of living.

“But in the United States, if you try to live on that amount in a day, it is poverty. So, you have to context, again, context matters,” he said.

Omokri was responding to discussions around the World Bank’s global poverty benchmark and argued that international poverty figures should be understood alongside the economic circumstances of individual countries.

He maintained that a global benchmark should not necessarily be interpreted in the same way across countries with significantly different costs of living.

Omokri’s comments come as Nigeria continues to face widespread concerns over the cost of food and other basic necessities, with household expenses varying considerably across different parts of the country.