Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and Labour Party presidential candidate in Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, has alleged that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is manipulating economic figures to misrepresent the true condition of the Nigerian economy. Obi made these claims in a recent post on X (formerly known as Twitter), where he criticized the administration’s approach to economic communication and accused it of spreading false optimism amidst worsening living conditions.
“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,” Obi wrote.
Reinforcing his position, Obi added:
“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.”
Data Reflects a Complex Economic Picture
Obi’s criticism comes as new national and international data sheds light on the stark realities facing many Nigerians. The World Bank’s April 2025 Africa’s Pulse report states that Nigeria accounts for 19% of sub-Saharan Africa’s extremely poor population—the highest share in the region.
- This translates to more than one in every seven of the world’s poorest people residing in Nigeria, a statistic that raises concerns about the country’s development trajectory.
- In 2024, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 80% of the global total of 695 million people living in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank.
At the same time, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) presents a nuanced view of inflation trends:
- Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined slightly to 22.22% in June 2025, down from 22.97% in May 2025.
- On a year-on-year basis, this represents a 11.97 percentage point drop from 34.19% recorded in June 2024.
- However, month-on-month inflation rose, with June’s rate at 1.68%, compared to 1.53% in May 2025, indicating a quicker pace of price increases.
These figures suggest that while there may be signs of easing inflation on an annual scale, the cost of living continues to rise month-over-month, affecting household stability and economic confidence.
A Pattern of Critique
This is not the first time Obi has spoken out about the country’s economic decline. In April 2025, he claimed that Nigeria had more poor people than China, Indonesia, and Vietnam combined—a stark comparison intended to spotlight the urgency of reform.
Obi’s latest remarks are likely to intensify the ongoing debate over the effectiveness and transparency of President Tinubu’s economic policies, particularly as Nigerians continue to grapple with widespread poverty, food insecurity, and inflationary pressures.
