Former South-East spokesman to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Josef Onoh, has rejected claims that an average Nigerian can comfortably survive on a daily budget of ₦3,000, describing the figure as an unrealistic assessment of the country’s current economic conditions.
Onoh, who is also Chairman of the Forum of Former Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly, said the argument failed to reflect the financial demands faced by Nigerian households, particularly as food, transportation, energy and other essential costs continue to rise.
According to him, while ₦3,000 a day amounts to roughly ₦90,000 monthly and is higher than the ₦70,000 national minimum wage, the comparison ignores the fact that Nigerians generally spend their income as members of households rather than as individuals.
He explained that a family of five relying on ₦3,000 daily would effectively have only ₦600 per person. That amount, he argued, would barely address food requirements and would leave virtually nothing for education, healthcare, transportation, clothing and other necessities.
Onoh said the rising prices of food items further demonstrated the difficulty of sustaining such a budget. He cited fresh pepper and tomatoes, which he said could sell for about ₦9,000 and ₦12,000 respectively per paint bucket, while prices of rice, beans, tubers and other staples had also increased.
Protein has also become more difficult for many households to afford, he added, with eggs and beef increasingly stretching the budgets of low- and middle-income families.
The former presidential spokesman also faulted attempts to apply a single cost-of-living measure across Nigeria. He noted that rural families with access to subsistence farming could sometimes offset part of their food expenses, unlike urban residents in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt who must contend with regular bills for electricity, fuel and transportation.
He further referenced data from the National Bureau of Statistics, arguing that the cost of maintaining a healthy diet was already significantly above basic nutritional requirements. Expenses such as cooking gas, kerosene, charcoal and potable water, he noted, also add to household pressure but are not included in food calculations.
Onoh warned that using the minimum wage to justify a ₦3,000 daily survival threshold could amount to normalising poverty. He said households that devote between 60 and 70 per cent of their income to food would have little remaining for healthcare, education or savings.
“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 base his public commentary on what he called the “empirical financial pressures” confronting Nigerians and called on government representatives to make citizens’ welfare a central responsibility rather than a privilege.
