₦3,000 Daily Survival Claim An ‘Economic Illusion’ — Onoh Knocks Omokri

Former Southeast spokesman for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Denge Dr. Josef Onoh, has described a claim by Reno Omokri that an average Nigerian can comfortably survive on ₦3,000 daily as an economic illusion detached from Nigerian reality.

Omokri made the claim in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, where he argued that ₦3,000 could cover an individual’s daily needs based on his assessment of food prices.

Onoh, who is also Chairman of the Forum of Former Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly, said Omokri’s argument was economically flawed, insensitive and inconsistent with the realities of household spending, food inflation and rising costs of basic necessities.

In a statement made available in Abuja, Onoh said although ₦3,000 daily translates to about ₦90,000 monthly—above the ₦70,000 national minimum wage—the calculation fails to account for the economic realities of the average Nigerian household.

He argued that Nigerians do not live as isolated individuals but largely as families, with the average household comprising several dependants.

“For a family of five, a ₦3,000 daily budget translates to just ₦600 per person,” Onoh said, arguing that such an amount cannot provide a nutritionally adequate meal, let alone cover food, transportation, education, healthcare, clothing and other essential expenses.

Onoh also challenged the claim from the perspective of food and nutrition costs, citing National Bureau of Statistics data on the rising cost of a healthy diet.

He said the cost of basic food items had continued to rise sharply, pointing to the prices of fresh pepper and tomatoes as examples, while rice, beans, tubers, eggs and beef had also become increasingly expensive.

According to him, the cost of food production and preparation goes beyond the price of raw ingredients, with households also having to contend with cooking gas, kerosene, charcoal and potable water.

Onoh further said the ₦3,000 argument ignored regional and urban economic realities, noting that while some rural households might rely partly on subsistence farming, residents of cities such as Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt face unavoidable expenses including transportation, electricity, fuel and other household bills.

He described the use of the ₦70,000 minimum wage to justify the ₦3,000 daily survival threshold as a “regressive economic argument” capable of normalising poverty rather than addressing the hardship confronting Nigerians.

Onoh said when households spend a large proportion of their income on food, little is left for education, healthcare, savings and other necessities.

He dismissed what he described as Omokri’s “micro-pricing of a few raw items during an isolated market visit,” saying such an exercise could not accurately represent the economic condition of millions of Nigerians.

“To label ₦3,000 as a viable daily survival threshold for the average Nigerian is to mistake bare subsistence for living,” Onoh said.

He urged Omokri to align his public commentary with the economic realities facing Nigerians, rather than presenting “false political economic arithmetic” for political purposes.

Onoh maintained that the welfare of Nigerians should remain the priority of every responsible government and its representatives, stressing that decent living conditions should be treated as a responsibility and not a privilege.