Peter Obi, the vice-presidential
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), got most of his facts right at
the TV debate on Friday, according to Valentine Obienyem, his media aide.
Obi came under intense scrutiny
for the statistics he reeled out at the debate, which a fact checkers disputing
most of his claims.
But in a press statement issued
on Monday, Obienyem said engaging in what he called
“statistical fallacy” was a mark of persons without honour and insisted that
Obi did not do so during the debate as “the sources of all the facts and
statistics he put forward could easily be verified”.
He itemised the points that Obi
made during the debate and gave the source of Obi’s data, which he challenged
those doubting their authenticity to verify.
THE VERIFIED FACTS
“During the debate, Obi said that
Nigeria used over 50% of her revenue to service debt. This can be verified from
DMO’s 2017 reports on Nigeria’s debt stock and total debt service. Obi said the
country’s total debt stock was N22.7 trillion, about USD80 billion. This can be
verified from DMO’s June 2018 report on Nigeria’s debt stock,” Obienyem wrote.
“Obi said that Mexico’s GDP was
over USD1 trillion and its GDP per capita was over USD8,000. This can be
verified from World Bank report on:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD?locations=MX&view=chart.
“Obi said that South Africa’s
stock market capitalisation was USD900 billion. This can be verified from Stock
Market Clock (https://www.stockmarketclock.com/exchanges/jse). Obi said that
Nigerian bank loans made up 15% of GDP. This can be verified from the World
Bank (source:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FD.AST.PRVT.GD.ZS?locations=NG&view=chart).
“Obi said that Nigeria had the
highest number of the poor at 87 million – growing by 6 persons per minute.
This can be verified from Brookings Institute publication, “The start of a new
poverty narrative” published by Homi Kharas, Kristofer Hamel, and Martin Hofer
on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 (source:
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2018/06/19/the-start-of-a-new-poverty-narrative/).
“Obi said that Nigeria’s Human
Development Index (HDI) ranking moved from 152 – 157. This can be verified from
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2018_human_development_statistical_update.pdf. Obi said that the Misery Index in Nigeria
worsened. This can be verified from
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/hankes-annual-misery-index-worlds-saddest-happiest-countries.
“Obi said that the FG budgeted
N340 billion on health and paid over N1 trillion on PMS subsidy. Education
budget was about N400 billion. This can be verified
fromhttps://punchng.com/subsidy-on-petrol-hits-n1-4tn-per-year-says-fg/. Obi said
that the ease of doing business ranking was currently at 146. This can be
verified from
http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/media/Annual-Reports/English/DB2019-report_web-version.pdf).
“Obi said that China created 7.2
million jobs within first 6 months in 2018. This can be verified from
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201809/17/WS5b9f2aeda31033b4f46566bb.html/. Obi
said that Nigeria’s 4,000 MW electricity generation was too low. This can be
verified from https://www.nigeriaelectricityhub.com/2018/12/04/electricity-market-generates-4176mw/”
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