Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, has accused President Bola Tinubu of using distorted statistics to obscure Nigeria’s worsening economic conditions.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Obi recalled how Tinubu, during the 2022 presidential campaign, dismissed his emphasis on data-driven governance.

“In November 2022, while campaigning in Delta State, Tinubu mocked me, saying he was ashamed to mention my name and asked, ‘Na statistics we go chop?’ He insisted that his goal was simply to put food on Nigerians’ tables,” Obi wrote.

“Now, two years into his four-year tenure, Nigeria is ranked among the hungriest nations in the world, with millions unsure of where their next meal will come from.”

The former Anambra State governor accused the president of deploying “false data” to create a misleading picture of the economy.

“President Tinubu is now overfeeding Nigerians with incorrect statistics—from unemployment and inflation to GDP rebasing—just to project a false sense of progress amidst widespread economic hardship,” he said.

Obi insisted that effective governance must be grounded in truth and competence, rather than propaganda or guesswork.

“Governance is not rocket science, nor is it a gamble,” he said. “It requires sincerity of purpose, vision, integrity, competence, capacity, and compassion.”