Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Reno Omokri, has said the average Nigerian can survive on N3,000 daily, arguing that poverty should be judged based on the economic conditions of each country.
Omokri made the claim on Sunday Politics, a television programme, during a discussion on living costs and global poverty standards.
He said he personally visited markets with a journalist, without security, to check the prices of basic food items such as yam, rice, maize and fruits.
According to him, the exercise showed that N3,000 could cover a Nigerian’s daily needs, although the same amount would mean poverty in the United States.
He said: “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.
“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.”
Omokri also said the World Bank’s global poverty benchmark differs from Nigeria’s economic reality.
He said the World Bank and International Monetary Fund define poverty as living on less than $2 a day.
Asked if he disagreed with the benchmark, he said: “The World Bank is using a global benchmark. And they’ve always used it?”
