Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Reno Omokri, has declared that Lagos State under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has produced more dollar millionaires than most African countries.
Omokri made the assertion during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, where he discussed Nigeria’s cost-of-living challenges and economic performance.
He linked the development to the state’s rapid expansion, noting that Lagos’s Gross Domestic Product had risen from less than $100 billion six years ago to about $259 billion in purchasing power parity terms.
“Under Sanwo-Olu, Lagos has made more dollar millionaires than most African nations,” Omokri stated in the interview clip shared by the Lagos State Government.
The ambassador-designate added that income levels in the state had also improved significantly during the period, reflecting broader gains in economic activity and opportunity.
Omokri further pointed to Lagos’s role as a major tourism hub, citing the annual Detty December festivities that draw large numbers of visitors.
“Every year, 1.2 million tourists go to Lagos for Detty December. That is the biggest single tourism event in Africa, and not one person has been killed or injured,” he said.
He argued that such outcomes demonstrated the state’s relative safety and attractiveness compared with negative perceptions often projected about Nigeria.
On the wider national picture, Omokri maintained that Nigeria is not as corrupt as global rankings suggest, explaining that the metrics used fail to account for local cultural practices of showing appreciation to public officials who perform well.
“Nigeria is not as corrupt as the world thinks it is because the metrics they are using to gauge corruption are global metrics and they do not take into account the particular culture of Nigeria,” he said, urging the country to tell its own story rather than allow external narratives to define it.
Turning to recent developments in the transport sector, Omokri explained why ride-hailing giant Uber exited Nigeria after 12 years of operations. “Do you know why Uber left Nigeria? The business model Uber has is that they come into your country and bring about mass low ticket transportation so that they price out the regular taxis. This is what they have done successfully in several countries including the US and the UK,” he said.
He noted that the company’s strategy initially appeared to be working in Nigeria but was undermined by public transport advances. “They tried that in this country and it was succeeding, but look at what was happening in Lagos. The infrastructural developments in Lagos has been so wide, so extensive that it is now possible for you to get from point A to Point B at the fraction of the cost using the Blue line, Red line and soon the green line is coming up also,” Omokri stated.
According to him, similar progress elsewhere sealed the firm’s fate. “In Abuja, you get from this your station to the airport by rail. So, Uber could not compete because of the advancement of infrastructure in Nigeria,” he added.
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