Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration of manipulating Nigeria’s economic statistics to mask worsening hardship.
Obi said the government is using false and misleading data to deceive the public about the true state of the economy.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Obi referenced Tinubu’s own campaign remarks in 2022, when the then-candidate mocked him for using statistics, saying, “Na statistics we go chop? All I want is to put food on the table of Nigerians.” Two years into that same administration, Obi said, Nigerians are hungrier than ever while Tinubu’s government is “now overfeeding Nigerians with wrong statistics.”
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“From wrong unemployment figures to wrong inflation numbers and now GDP debasing, this administration is only trying to paint a positive spin on our deteriorating economic and household conditions,” Obi said.
He emphasized that governance is not guesswork, but requires “sincerity of purpose, character, competence, capacity, and compassion.” The former governor has long warned that data manipulation can lead to disastrous policy choices that ignore the lived experiences of ordinary citizens.
IMF Too Has Raised a Red Flag on Nigeria’s Economic Data
Obi’s claims have gained more traction following fresh concerns from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which recently flagged the accuracy and timeliness of Nigeria’s economic statistics. The Fund, early this month, highlighted deficiencies in data from the country’s fiscal, monetary, external, and financial sectors. It noted that Nigeria’s fragmented, outdated, and incomplete data infrastructure hinders effective policy monitoring, while delays and inconsistencies in key metrics complicate government planning.
One of the most troubling issues raised by the IMF is the “significant errors and omissions” in Nigeria’s balance of payments data, which make it difficult to assess the country’s true external position. These inaccuracies, the Fund warns, pose risks to financial stability and prevent sound macroeconomic management.
Following the rebasing of economic data methodology, the Tinubu administration has been rolling out a series of official data releases in recent weeks — including GDP, inflation, and unemployment statistics — amid growing skepticism over the credibility of those numbers. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last week announced that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 3.3% in the second quarter of 2025.
However, some economists have noted that the numbers don’t align with the deteriorating welfare conditions on the ground.
Renowned economist and Financial Derivatives Company CEO, Bismarck Rewane, also warned against what he called “happy statistics and unhappy people.” In an interview with ChannelsTV last week, Rewane stressed that Nigeria must move beyond headline GDP growth and focus on real, inclusive progress that improves the lives of ordinary citizens.
“What we want to avoid are happy statistics and unhappy people,” he said. “You can grow as much as you want, you can do all. It must be about the welfare of the people. The people must feel it, must be happy about it. If not, you will have happy statistics and unhappy people.”
Rewane’s caution mirrors widespread concern that government officials are deploying numbers as propaganda tools rather than as a basis for addressing inflation, food insecurity, joblessness, and rising inequality.
Nigeria’s Position in Global Poverty
The World Bank’s Africa Pulse report, released in April 2025, underscored the severity of Nigeria’s poverty problem. The report revealed that Nigeria now accounts for 19% of sub-Saharan Africa’s extremely poor population, the highest share in the region. This means that more than one in every seven of the world’s poorest people now lives in Nigeria, putting into question the credibility of any rosy economic narrative.
This alarming trend persists despite the government’s claim of easing inflation. The NBS reported that Nigeria’s headline inflation slowed slightly to 22.22% in June 2025, down from 22.97% in May. But the data also revealed that prices rose faster month-on-month in June, 1.68%, compared to 1.53% in May, suggesting inflationary pressures remain entrenched.
Peter Obi has maintained a consistent focus on the disconnect between official numbers and real-world conditions. In April, he warned that Nigeria has more poor people than China, Indonesia, and Vietnam combined, a sobering indictment of decades of mismanagement.
This backdrop now raises a big question: whether the government will confront the mounting pressure to address the issue of inaccurate data and begin tackling the actual causes of economic distress, rather than manipulating the symptoms.