Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of misrepresenting Nigeria’s economic realities through the use of inaccurate statistics.
In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), Obi criticized Tinubu for allegedly downplaying the country’s worsening economic situation with misleading data on key indicators such as unemployment, inflation, and GDP.
Obi recalled a statement Tinubu made during the 2023 campaign, where he reportedly dismissed the importance of data in governance. “In November 2022, while campaigning in Delta State, Tinubu said he was ashamed to call my name and mocked me, saying, ‘Na statistics we go chop? All I want is to put food on the table of Nigerians,’” Obi wrote.
“Now, two years into his four-year tenure, Nigeria is ranked among the hungriest countries in the world, with millions of citizens unsure of where their next meal will come from,” he added.
Obi alleged that the Tinubu administration is now relying heavily on “false data” to create a misleading image of progress. “President Tinubu is now overfeeding Nigerians with wrong statistics — from unemployment figures to inflation rates and now GDP rebasing — all to paint a rosy picture of our deteriorating economic and household conditions,” he stated.
He emphasized that good governance must be rooted in honesty, competence, and empathy. “Governance is not rocket science. It is not a gamble. It requires sincerity of purpose, character, competence, capacity, and compassion,” Obi said.
