‘Detached from Nigerian reality’, Omokri knocked over 3k daily survival claim

Former Enugu State House of Assembly member, Josef Onoh, has criticized Nigerian diplomat and former public relations expert, Reno Omokri, for claiming that Nigerians can live comfortably on a daily budget of ₦3,000. During a segment on Channels Television's Sunday Politics, Omokri claimed that he personally surveyed market prices and found that an average Nigerian can survive on this budget.

However, Onoh argued that Omokri's claim was economically detached and detached from the reality faced by Nigerians. Onoh pointed out that Omokri's analysis did not account for the socio-economic structures of modern Nigerian households and the realities of food inflation and the rising costs of non-food necessities. According to Onoh, the average Nigerian household consists of five to six individuals, making a ₦3,000 daily budget impossible for each person to cover even a single nutritionally complete meal, let alone three daily meals, clothing, schooling, and healthcare.

Onoh also highlighted the high cost of a healthy diet, citing data from the National Bureau of Statistics which found that the cost of a healthy diet averages over ₦1,500 per adult per day, not including critical overheads such as cooking gas, kerosene, charcoal, or potable water. He also pointed out that the cost of essential protein sources like eggs and beef have become premium commodities.

Onoh emphasized that Omokri's claim, when subjected to regional economic pressures, collapses. While a rural household in the North West might rely on local subsistence farming to lower food costs, urban dwellers in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt face structural overheads such as high energy tariffs, fuel costs, and skyrocketing transport fares.

Onoh concluded by urging Omokri to align his narratives with the economic realities faced by Nigerians, rather than using false economic arguments to justify extreme poverty.