To keep politicians
accountable at the vice-presidential and presidential debate, news medium, TheCable was
live-checking the supposed facts and figures being bandied by those seeking the
highest offices in the land.
The participating parties are;
Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), All
Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Young
Progressives Party (YPP).
Peter Obi of the PDP, and APC’s
Yemi Osinbajo are debating alongside Ganiyu Galadima of ACPN, Khadijah
Abdullahi-Iya of ANN and Umma Abdullahi-Getso of YPP.
OBI: There are about two
million vehicles in Nigeria.
CHECKED: False. According to the National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS), Nigeria has a total vehicle population of about 11,547,236 as at the
third quarter of 2017.
OSINBAJO: Lagos-Ibadan
expressway was “practically” abandoned for 16 years under PDP.
CHECKED: False. The Goodluck Jonathan administration made many
interventions on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, awarding a multi-billion naira
contract to Julius Berger and RCC. The administration fixed the Ibadan to Ogere
section of the road.
OSINBAJO: A bag of
fertiliser now sells for N6,000 to N7,000.
CHECKED: Largely correct. Price of fertiliser has experienced a drastic
drop following the Nigeria-Morocco fertiliser deal. Current prices are
between N5,500 and N6,500. As at 2016, a bag of fertiliser sold above
N10,000.
OBI: Nigeria has
fallen on the global competitive index from 124 to 127.
CHECKED: False. According to the latest (2018) World Economic Forum
report, Nigeria rose on the index by 10 places. Obi’s claim was
true in 2016.
OBI: Total loans from
the banks in Nigeria is N19trn and only 0.5% goes to SMEs
CHECKED: Yet to be verified.
OSINBAJO: There is a tax
threshold for SMEs, SMEs get to a level before they pay taxes.
CHECKED: True. There is a lower tax rate of 20% applicable to small
companies in manufacturing, agriculture and mining within their first five
years of business. The problem with the law is that the turnover threshold to
qualify is only N1 million which is not in tune with current realities.
OBI: Nigeria’s
foreign direct investment for 2015 was $21bn, while it fell to $12bn in 2017.
CHECKED: False. According to NBS capital importation reports, Nigeria’s
total imported capital stood at $9.6 billion in 2015, and $12.3 billion
in 2017. Perhaps Obi meant 2014, when Nigeria’s total capital imported stood at
$20.7 billion.
OBI: African trade
today is less than 9 percent.
CHECKED: False. According to Afriexim Bank, Intra-Africa trade is
around 15 percent. In 2016, intra-African exports made up 18 percent of
total exports according to Brookings Institution.
OSINBAJO: Nigeria went
down by 64 places under PDP, but has risen by 24 places under APC
CHECKED: Partly False. Nigeria went down from 120 to 170 between 2008
and 2015, under PDP rule. Under the APC, ease of doing business has risen from
170 in 2015 to 146 in 2018, according to the World Bank Ease of Doing Business
report.
OBI: Oil gives you
80% of foreign exchange earnings.
CHECKED: Point valid, figures near accurate. As at 2017 NBS figures
showed that Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings from oil the oil sector stood
above 90%.
OBI: To bring out
goods from Apapa cost more than it takes to bring goods from Europe
CHECKED: Unverified
GALADIMA: We have
four refineries in Nigeria, and none is working.
CHECKED: The refineries according to NNPC reports are working at
sub-optimal levels. Not totally dysfunctional.
UMMA GESTO: Nigerian
Airways was one of the largest in the world.
CHECKED: Unverified.
OBI: The federal
government spends only N5 on the health of each Nigerian citizen per day.
CHECKED: True. Based on budgetary and population calculations done, the
federal government allocates N4.7 to every Nigerian’s health per day.
OBI: Apple Inc’s
market cap is bigger than the economies of Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt.
CHECKED: Apple’s market cap today is $788.57 billion. The economies of
these three countries are bigger than Apple. When Apple was $1 trillion a few
months ago, it was bigger in dollar terms.
OSINBAJO: Nigeria
producing 90% of the rice we consume.
CHECKED: Dicey. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country’s
rice import has dropped drastically with a surge in local production. The CBN
estimates that Nigeria has legally imported less than 25,000 tonnes of rice in
2018 — validating Osinbajo’s claims.
Africa Rice Centre says Nigeria produces 75% of its rice consumption,
adding that rice smuggling is a big problem in Nigeria. Nobody tracks the
amount of rice smuggled into the country.
According to the Thailand Rice Exporters Association, the rice exported
to Nigeria between January and October 2018 was 6,121 tonnes, representing a
drastic drop when compared to 2016 when all-year import stood at 58,260 metric
tonnes.
But the rice exported to Benin Republic, where most of Nigeria’s
smuggled rice comes from, has increased from 805,765 metric tonnes in 2015 to
1,214,568 metric tonnes as at October 2018.
However, the United States Department of Agriculture says Nigeria’s
imports rose in 2018 and Nigeria is projected to produce 4.79 million metric
tonnes in 2019 and import as much as 2.4 million metric tonnes in 2019.
OBI: To bring out
goods from Apapa cost more than it takes to bring goods from Europe
CHECKED: Unverified
GALADIMA: We have
four refineries in Nigeria, and none is working.
CHECKED: The refineries
according to NNPC reports are working at sub-optimal levels. Not totally
dysfunctional.
UMMA GESTO: Nigerian
Airways was one of the largest in the world.
CHECKED: Unverified.
OBI: The federal
government spends only N5 on the health of each Nigerian citizen per day.
CHECKED: True. Based on
budgetary and population calculations, the federal government
allocates N4.7 to every Nigerian’s health per day.
OBI: Apple Inc’s
market cap is bigger than the economies of Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt.
CHECKED: Apple’s market cap
today is $788.57 billion. The economies of these three countries are bigger
than Apple. When Apple was $1 trillion a few months ago, it was bigger in
dollar terms.
Source: TheCable
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