Nigerians are not finding the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Economic Affairs, Dr. Tope Fasua statement funny, as it enraged a lot of them.

Dr. Fasua had in a podcast defended the value of the naira in local terms, comparing the cost of living in Nigeria with that of the United States.

However his comparison causes controversies on social media as some people believed that most politicians, especially top tiers officials, are not in touch with Nigeria’s reality, as the present economy has reduced able bodied individuals to beggars who can’t afford the barest minimum.

Speaking on the MicOnPodcast with Seun Okinbaloye, Fasua argued that many Nigerians misunderstand the concept of multi-dimensional poverty, which is often used in global poverty indices.

“Some people don’t understand the meaning of multi-dimensional poverty,” he said. “They think multi-dimensional poverty is worse than food poverty. What multi-dimensional means is that maybe the school your children attend is too far from you, or the hospital, and they categorise you as multi-dimensional.”

He went on to explain that despite the high exchange rate of the naira to the dollar, the purchasing power of local currency in Nigeria remains significant compared to the cost of living abroad.

“$1 is N1,500 – it’s a lot of money for many people in Nigeria. $10 won’t buy you lunch anywhere in the

U.S., sometimes you need at least $20, that is N30,000 in Nigeria,” Fasua explained.

The SSA described how ordinary Nigerians can still enjoy decent meals without spending much.

“I will tell you what you can do with $5 – that is N7,500 – if you are not going to eat in some eyebrow places.

“In Gwarinpa, there are some people that sell Boli and fish and you will eat for N1,500. If you know where you are coming from.” he added.

Some people opined that the minimum wages of U.S. $1,218 [1,865,988.18 NGN] overseas afford them to be ability to afford such meal in their much developed world, compared to Nigeria’s 70,000 naira, which can’t sustain a family.

@Adepoju89500205; “In Nigeria, the monthly minimum wage is around 70k, which is around $44 . In contrast, the US federal minimum wage works out to $1,120 per month, that’s If you work 40hours a week @7$/h(you can work for more than 40 hrs in a week) .

“To put this into perspective, it would take someone in the US 7 hours to earn the whole money someone working in Nigeria will earn in a month. So when a person will earn the whole Nigeria minimum wage with 6-7hrs how on earth can someone be comparing this two distinct economy?”

@king_audacity: “Those people make around $7-$20 dollars per hour. The comparison is dead on arrival. These men aren’t in touch with realities”

@morolaoluwa: “If an adviser can compare the U.S. economy to Nigeria’s economy that reduces able-bodied individuals to beggars, you can imagine the kind of advice they would give to the president”

@NonyeKings: “Two things 1) he’s lying 2) after stealing the country dry, when he comes to the US, he only chooses expensive restaurants to eat cos those are the best places to spend stolen funds. So he only goes to Hollywood for lunch.”

@Mayo6Tee: “People make $30 in America per hour, that’s someone’s monthly allowance under Tinubu in Nigeria.”