By Denis Agbo
ABUJA — Former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has come under criticism from former South-East spokesman to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chairman of the Forum of Former Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Josef Onoh, over his claim that an average Nigerian can comfortably live on a daily budget of ₦3,000.
Onoh described the claim as economically unrealistic and disconnected from the current cost-of-living situation facing Nigerian households.
In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, Onoh said although ₦3,000 daily translates to about ₦90,000 monthly, which is above the ₦70,000 national minimum wage, the calculation failed to account for the structure of Nigerian households and the rising costs of food and other essential needs.
He argued that the analysis treated Nigerians as isolated individuals rather than members of households that typically comprise several people.
According to him, a family of five operating on a ₦3,000 daily budget would have only ₦600 per person, which he said was insufficient to provide a nutritionally adequate meal, let alone cover other necessities such as clothing, education, healthcare and transportation.
Onoh also cited the rising cost of food as evidence that the ₦3,000 daily survival threshold was unrealistic.
He said data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, had consistently shown that the cost of a healthy diet was substantially higher than the amount required to meet basic nutritional needs, while expenses such as cooking gas, kerosene, charcoal and potable water were excluded from food calculations.
He added that prices of staples and other food items had continued to rise in major urban markets.
Onoh said fresh pepper and tomatoes could cost about ₦9,000 and ₦12,000 respectively per paint bucket, while the prices of rice, beans, tubers and other staples had also increased.
He added that protein sources such as eggs and beef had become increasingly expensive, further reducing the purchasing power of low- and middle-income households.
The former presidential spokesman also argued that economic realities differed significantly across regions and between rural and urban areas.
According to him, while some rural households may rely partly on subsistence farming to reduce food expenses, residents of cities such as Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt face unavoidable costs including electricity, fuel and transportation.
Onoh said using the ₦70,000 minimum wage to justify a ₦3,000 daily survival budget risked normalising poverty rather than addressing the economic pressures confronting Nigerians.
He said households spending between 60 and 70 per cent of their income on food would have little left for education, healthcare, savings and other essential needs.
Onoh further argued that pricing a few items during an isolated market visit could not provide a reliable picture of the country’s cost-of-living situation.
“To label ₦3,000 as a viable daily survival threshold for the average Nigerian is to mistake bare subsistence for living, masking a deep humanitarian and economic reality behind superficial retail arithmetic,” he said.
He urged Omokri to align his public commentary with what he described as the “empirical financial pressures” facing Nigerians.
Onoh also called on government officials and representatives to prioritise the welfare of citizens, saying the well-being of Nigerians should be treated as a responsibility of government rather than a privilege.
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