Tope Fasua’s Intellectually Dishonest “Jaganomics” in Spinning the meaning of Multi-dimensional poverty : Why His Comparison of the Cost of Lunch in the USA and Nigeria Is Economically Misleading, Intellectually Irresponsible, and Insulting to Common Sense

By Dr. Ope Banwo (The Mayor of Fadeyi – Public Analyst, Blogger and Lawyer)

It is one thing for politicians to stretch the truth. It is quite another when trained economists, entrusted with national policy, abandon economic fundamentals in a desperate attempt to spin the unspinnable. When such individuals begin to measure national prosperity OR meaning of multi-dimentional poverty by the cost of a lunch plate, we are no longer in the realm of policy — we have entered the theatre of absurdity.

Recently, Dr. Tope Fasua, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Economic Affairs, made an extraordinary claim on MicOnPodcast. He suggested that the standard of living in Nigeria may be better than in the United States, or that most of us do not understand meaning of multi-dimensional poverty based on the logic that:

“$10 won’t buy you lunch in the U.S., but N1,000 will buy you lunch in Nigeria.”

This, according to him, proves that the naira has “real local value” and that Nigeria’s economic reality is better than global statistics suggest.

Really?

So we should now clap for them and celebrate the fact that despite a naira that has lost over 150% of its value under the current government, Nigerians are allegedly “better off” than Americans — because of one hypothetical plate of food?

With all due respect to Mr. Fasua, this argument is not only economically misleading, it is intellectually dishonest and profoundly insulting to the millions of Nigerians living below the poverty line.

But lest I be accused of disrespecting a previously accomplished economist before he became an economic megaphone and adviser for the Jagaban government, let us now dissect this astonishingly flawed economic proposition with data, logic, and clarity — in seven brutally honest points:

1. Comparing Wages — Not Lunch Plates — Is WHAT Actually Reveals the True Standard of Living [and by extension Multidimensional poverty]

Let’s start with basic math:

• Minimum wage in the U.S. averages $10/hour or more, totaling $1,600/month (approx. ₦2,480,000.00 monthly at current naira/dollar rates).
• Minimum wage in Nigeria is ₦70,000/month, about $40/month, which comes to just $2/day or ₦437/hour (based on a standard work week).

That means an American minimum wage earner makes almost 40 times more than their Nigerian counterpart.

Even if a $10 lunch in the U.S. seems expensive, the American worker can afford 160 of them monthly. If he were buying ₦1,000 lunches in Nigeria, he could afford over 2,800 meals a month.

Meanwhile, a Nigerian on ₦70,000/month can only afford 70 lunches at ₦1,000 — assuming he spends every single kobo on food and nothing else.

So if this were truly a “lunch affordability contest,” Nigeria still loses — spectacularly.
And Mr. Fasua knows this.

Which brings me to this: Has he actually tried to buy lunch with ₦1,000 in Nigeria recently?
I was on a movie set recently where ₦3,000 was budgeted for meals per cast member. What was served was almost inhumane. Even ₦3,000 barely delivered a dignified plate of food for people bein paid N5,000 /N10,000 a day as crowd extras.

2. The “Local Value” Argument Ignores Global Realities

Mr. Fasua wants us to appreciate the naira “locally” and stop using the word multi-dimentional poverty to the situation of most Nigerians. But Nigeria does not operate in a vacuum. We are:

• A net importer of food and fuel
• Dependent on the dollar for most essentials — from medicine to machinery
• Trapped in chronic inflation and currency devaluation

At ₦1,550 to $1, the naira’s “local value” is only a fairy tale economists tell themselves when they’re too deep in the government bubble.

It’s reminiscent of Marie Antoinette, who famously said, “Let them eat cake,” when told her people could not afford bread. That kind of detachment sparked a revolution in France. In Nigeria, it only sparks quiet rage.

Frankly, it’s a testament to Nigerians’ patience that such a deeply insensitive comment has not sparked public uproar.

3. The Cost of Living in Nigeria Is No Longer “Cheap” by Any Honest Metric

The claim that Nigeria is affordable is a dangerous myth. Consider:

• A 50kg bag of rice = almost ₦100,000
• Fuel = ₦1,000+ per litre
• Rent for a modest Lagos apartment = ₦1.5 million/year 9out of reach of most)
• Transportation, healthcare, education = fully privatized burdens

Even if ₦1,000 gets you a meagre plate of rice somewhere, on a minimum wage of only N70,000 A MONTH, what then happens to rent, school fees, and transport?

Mr. Fasua must understand this — unless, of course, he now lives in a subsidized bubble within Aso Rock, where fuel, food, and furniture arrive courtesy of taxpayer money.

4. Nigerians Personally Fund Their Own Infrastructure

In America, even minimum wage earners have or can afford:

• Public electricity
• Clean water
• Reliable public transport
• Public healthcare
• Access to justice and order
• Buy a car to drive. Yes. Those who work as doormen in Walmart or mcdonalds can still find a car to buy. Some bank managers in Nigeria of today cannot afford to buy a car much less their gatemen and Mr Fasua is talking about being grateful for buying a N1,000 lunch.

In Nigeria, citizens are essentially their own government:

• Buy a generator for light
• Dig a borehole for water
• Construct drainage to fight flooding
• Hire security to stay safe or do vigilante in turns
• Pay bribes to get justice or access to the scarce public benefits
• Fund private schools because public schools are broken

So yes, a $10 lunch in the U.S. may seem “expensive,” but life in general is dramatically more affordable and dignified when one earns a real living wage — which the U.S. offers and Nigeria does not.

5. Poverty Is Not Just About Food — It’s About Dignity and Opportunity

Reducing poverty to affordability of a miserable N1,000 lunch over a $10 lunch in USA, is a simplistic and shameful deflection by an economist who should know better.

True standard of living includes:

• Access to affordable healthcare
• Access to quality education
• Freedom of mobility and choice
• Dignity of legal and social rights

In the U.S., someone earning minimum wage still has access to public services. In Nigeria, people die for lack of ₦5,000 for malaria treatment.

Saying “we’re doing better because we can buy a cheap plate of rice” is like saying someone is healthy because their fever broke — while ignoring the cancer spreading inside.

6. Most Officials Making These Claims Don’t Live the “Naira Life” they tell citizens to manage and be happy about

Let us state the obvious.

Those who glorify ₦1,000 lunches do not eat them. Their reality is:

• Most of their Children school in foreign schools
• They Medical treatments in Dubai, Germany and London, including our president who is setting the very bad example, if I may add. How much would it cost to put the same quality of hospital they all travel to in Nigeria? Afterall, the govt budgets billions annually for govt hospitals.
• They wear Designer wardrobes from Europe
• Most of their Travels are funded by the state

They spend in dollars and pounds while preaching to the rest of us about the “local value” of naira.

Mr. Fasua’s comment, therefore, is not just tone-deaf — it’s Ikoyi elite gaslighting of the long suffering Fadeyi people of the highest order, and I resent it on their behalf even if I do not physical live in Fadeyi or Mushin.

And those on the Fadeyi side of life are simply not amused.

7. This Type of Commentary Is Not Just Wrong — It’s Dangerous

When senior economic advisers trivialize national hardship with lunch comparisons, we are in real trouble. Because the unexpressed argument appears to be if ₦1,000 lunches prove we’re “better off” than America, then:

• Why fight inflation?
• Why raise the minimum wage?
• Why agitate for structural reforms?

Afterall, if our Naira has ‘local value’ then we should all be oaky and not agitate. This kind of thinking is a policy tranquilizer. It encourages government inertia. And that is not just unhelpful — it is fatal.

My Final Thought on Mr Fasua’s dangerous Jaganomics

Dr. Tope Fasua’s comments may have been intended as spin — but in my opinion they landed as a complete distortion of economic reality.

To indirectly suggest that Nigeria’s standard of living is higher than America’s or that we are not dealing with multi-dimensional poverty in Nigeria because ₦1,000 can buy you lunch here while $10 might not buy you lunch there is not just bad economics — it’s mockery disguised as analysis.

It becomes especially alarming when an otherwise respected economist, who once aspired to lead this country, descends into what I call “Jaganomics” — the practice of twisting logic until it begins to choke on itself.

One is left wondering what kind of economic advice our President is receiving behind closed doors if this is what’s presented in public. How can anyone tell us we do not understand Multi-dimentional poverty by showing us the naira cost of lunch in Nigeria is lower than the cost of lunch in usa?

Nigerians deserve better.
We deserve facts, not fairy tales.
We deserve policy, not punchlines.
We deserve economic honesty — not revisionist logic based on lunch menus.

And above all, we deserve leaders who do not insult our intelligence in the name of patriotism or party loyalty.

My name is Ope Banwo, and as the self styled Mayor Of Fadeyi I want to be on record as being affronted by the comments of the otherwise respected economist, Mr Tope Fasua