The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has criticised President Bola Tinubu over the state of the economy.
The former governor of Anambra State has accused the administration of relying on manipulated data to mask the worsening hardship in the country.
Obi, in a statement posted via his X handle on Monday, recalled a 2022 campaign remark by Tinubu, who dismissed his (Obi’s) focus on data and statistics.
According to Obi, at the time, Tinubu had said, “Na statistics we go chop? All I want is to put food on the table of Nigerians.”
Nearly two years into President Tinubu’s four-year term, Obi said that the promise remains unfulfilled, as hunger and hardship have worsened under his watch.
“Today, Nigeria is classified as one of the hungriest nations in the world. Millions of Nigerians do not know where their next meal will come from,” Obi stated.
The former governor accused the Tinubu administration of using “wrong statistics” to paint a misleading picture of the economy. He cited questionable unemployment figures, inaccurate inflation reports, and what he described as the recent “GDP debasing,” claiming they were all part of efforts to downplay the country’s deteriorating economic and household conditions.
The statement reads in full:
In November 2022, while campaigning in Delta State, the then APC Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu, now the President, berated the other Presidential Candidate (Peter Obi), he was ashamed to call his name, saying “Na statistics we go chop all I want is to put food on the table of Nigerians”.
Now, 2 years into his 4-year tenure, Nigeria is classified as one of the hungriest nations in the world, with millions of Nigerians not knowing where their next meal will come from.
President Tinubu is now overfeeding Nigerians with wrong Statistics from wrong unemployment figures, wrong inflation figures, and now GDP debasing, all to put a positive spin on our deteriorating economic and household conditions.
Governance is not a rock science, it’s not a gamble, like I have always reiterated, it requires sincerity of purpose, character, competence, capacity and compassion.
A new Nigeria is POssible.
And why can’t you feed us to stop being hungry or do you wants to video us when serving us foods as usual? Lol