“A Minimum Wage Earner Is Dead Already”: TG Omori Opens Up on Costly Battle With Kidney Failure
- Music video director TG Omori spoke publicly about his ongoing battle with kidney failure, which kept him hospitalised for months
- TG Omori broke down the staggering cost of dialysis treatment, noting that three sessions a week can run as high as 600K
- The director shared how close industry friends supported him through the ordeal, and what the experience taught him about money and survival
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Nigerian music video director ThankGod Omori, better known as TG Omori, has opened up about his deeply personal struggle with kidney failure, detailing the physical, emotional, and financial toll the illness has taken on him.
TG Omori, widely regarded as one of Nigeria's most celebrated cinematographers, while speaking on the Afropolitan podcast aired on YouTube on September 23, 2026, said he spent over six months hospitalised at a facility in Ikoyi while battling the condition.
Source: Instagram
During that period, only a tight circle of industry colleagues, including Olamide Baddo, Fireboy, Asake, Rema, Young John, and Zlatan, were aware of what he was going through.
TG Omori speaks on the search for a kidney donor
Finding a compatible donor proved to be an agonising nine-month process.
According to Omori, six people were initially willing to donate, but compatibility issues ruled them out one by one.
Eventually, his own brother stepped forward and went through with the donation. Tragically, TG Omori's body rejected the transplanted kidney.
Doctors made a second attempt, but the organ still did not respond, leaving his brother to live with just one kidney.
TG Omori shares the real cost of dialysis in Nigeria
Speaking during a recent interview, TG Omori was blunt about the financial burden of managing kidney failure in Nigeria.
"Money is actually important because I can't lie to you, we've spent a lot of cr@zy money," he said.
TG Omori explained that a single dialysis session at standard hospitals costs between 50,000 and 70,000 naira, but his sessions at a private facility ran between 150,000 and 200,000 naira each.
With patients often requiring three sessions per week, the weekly bill can climb to around 500,000 to 600,000 naira.
"So a minimum wage person is dead already on one session," he said plainly.
Calculating across a year of waiting for a transplant, TG Omori estimated the total could reach 31 million naira, and that is before factoring in additional tests, medications, or complications.
"So automatically, if your salary is even one million naira a month, it can't serve you," he added.
"You have to actually have money — not just money, you have to have people that have money to also support you."
He ended on a philosophical note that captured the weight of everything he had endured:
"So if you look at things like that, you understand that even though money can't buy happiness, but money can still buy some time."
Watch TG Omori recount his battle with kidney failure in the YouTube video below:
Fans react to TG Omori's story
Here is what social media users said about the music video director:
@hrm_reeee commented:
"Money cannot buy health, know this and know peace"
@shoes_by_demokraft wrote:
"As we dey pray for money, Na so we suppose dey pray for good health"
@vts.ng shared:
"Good health is indeed priceless and underrated!"
@abdul____orazaq responded:
"As someone who has walked down this road, I agree with him 💯. Money isn't everything o but it's an important tool that with it, many things are possible. The last part he said — that to survive kidney disease you must have money and people who have money to support you is so valid; otherwise, you're a dead meat on arrival. May God help us. No matter how wealthy you are, do everything to avoid kidney and liver disease!!!!!!!!"
Source: Instagram
TG Omori decries Lagos shoot extortion
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that TG Omori spoke against street extortion targeting film and video productions in Lagos, recounting a disruption at his private Ikoyi shoot.
He said more than 30 area boys tried to force their way into the location around 3 am, leaving him to spend nearly an hour calming the situation despite having paid for security and the property.
TG Omori said the incident pushed the production over budget and called for an end to the practice, which he described as a growing problem.
Source: Legit.ng
