Nigeria’s Ambassador-designate to Mexico, Reno Omokri, has argued that an average Nigerian can survive on N3,000 per day, saying poverty benchmarks should be assessed within the economic realities of individual countries.
Omokri made the statement on Sunday Politics, a television programme, during a discussion on the rising cost of living and the application of international poverty standards.
He said he personally visited markets with a journalist and without security to check the prices of essential food items, including yam, rice, maize and fruits.
According to him, his findings showed that N3,000 could cover basic daily needs for Nigerians, although the same amount would constitute 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 distinguished between the World Bank’s global poverty threshold and the realities of living costs in Nigeria.
He said the poverty definition used by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which he described as living on less than $2 a day, represents a global benchmark rather than a measure that necessarily reflects the economic conditions in individual countries.
Asked whether he disagreed with the World Bank’s poverty benchmark, Omokri maintained that the institution was applying a global standard.
He added: “The World Bank is using a global benchmark. And they’ve always used it?”
