Former Governor of Anambra State and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of manipulating economic statistics to present a distorted view of Nigeria’s economic condition.
Taking to his verified X (formerly Twitter) account, Obi claimed the Tinubu administration is using misleading figures to mask the country’s deepening hardship, accusing the President of feeding Nigerians “wrong statistics” to create a false sense of economic progress.
“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,’” Obi recalled.
“Now, two years into his four-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.”
Obi accused the Tinubu administration of systematically misrepresenting data on unemployment, inflation, and GDP. According to him, the attempt to “debase” economic realities is a disservice to citizens grappling with the harsh realities of food insecurity, joblessness, and inflation.
“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,” he said.
Obi emphasized that governance requires more than spin tactics, highlighting the need for leadership built on “sincerity of purpose, character, competence, capacity, and compassion.”
What the Data Actually Says:
Peter Obi’s criticism comes against a backdrop of concerning economic data from both local and international institutions.
The World Bank’s April 2025 Africa’s Pulse report states that Nigeria accounts for 19% of the extremely poor population in sub-Saharan Africa the largest share in the region. This means more than one in every seven of the world’s extremely poor now lives in Nigeria. The report also reveals that sub-Saharan Africa was home to 80% of the world’s 695 million extremely poor people in 2024.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased slightly to 22.22% in June 2025, down from 22.97% in May 2025. Although this represents an annual decrease from 34.19% in June 2024, inflation still increased month-over-month, rising 1.68% in June, up from 1.53% in May, indicating a faster rise in average prices.
A Pattern of Criticism
This isn’t the first time Obi has voiced concern over the worsening socio-economic realities in the country. In April 2025, he asserted that Nigeria has more poor people than China, Indonesia, and Vietnam combined, further reinforcing his argument that the country is off-track and in need of serious reform not statistical spin.
