Fact checkers went to work Friday night to puncture some of the
statistics quoted by Peter Obi, the vice-presidential candidate of the
opposition Peoples Democratic Party at the live TV debate at the
Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
Vice presidential candidates at the debate |
In arguing that petrol subsidy that he estimated to be a trillion
naira a year was a waste, Obi said there are only two million vehicles
in Nigeria.
Fact-checking revealed otherwise. According to National Bureau of
Statistics(NBS), Nigeria has over 11.5million vehicles on the road, as
at 2017.
Obi also claimed that intra-African trade is just a mere 9 per cent.
He was proven wrong. Intra-African trade, according to Afreximbank
Africa Trade Report 2018, is estimated at 15 per cent. In 2016, this was
estimated at 18 per cent of its total exports and imports. IMF even
gave an estimate of 20 per cent of the total trade volume of about one
trillion dollars.
Obi was correct when he said oil exports still accounts for 80 per
cent of Nigeria’s dollar revenue. However, oil contribution to GDP has
dwindled to about 10 per cent, according to NBS.
But he was caught out when he claimed that his administration as
governor of Anambra state was the first to buy up to 30,000 computers
for schools. Twitterati said Governor Kayode Fayemi bought more in his
first term in Ekiti State. He reportedly bought 48,000 Samsung laptops,
30,000 for students and 18,000 for teachers.
Despite the statistical goofs, Obi was praised by many PDP sympathisers for his performance during the debate.
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