By Olorogun Olori Magege
Peter Obi’s political brand is based on one claim: he is the man of data. Again and again he tells the crowds to “go and check.” So let’s take him at his word: the numbers behind his economic alternative.
Concerning the removal of the fuel subsidy, Mr. Obi says it’s cruel, reckless and badly sequenced. Fair enough. But he has failed to answer the question that naturally comes after those criticisms: what would you have done? Would you have kept the subsidy? For how long, at what price and on whose cost? Somehow, this candidate who throws up spreadsheets at every rally hasn’t yet come up with any that answers the single most important question of the campaign.
Let us consider the slogan he carried in 2023: “from consumption to production”. That was the right ambition. Nigeria has to stop importing what it can produce and start producing what it consumes. That same agenda is the reforms he now attacks. “Production” is now refining and has cut petroleum imports by nearly 29 percent. “Production” accrued $5.85 billion in refined exports last year. “Production” is the trade balance which leans toward surplus. “Production” is the million students on a loan scheme building skills for a producing economy. Tinubu is delivering Obi’s own slogan, “from consumption to production”.
Now, Obi’s contradiction urgently deserves an answer. It is either he supports the current policies that are driving Nigeria “from consumption to production” or he shows clearly his alternative plan to get there. If he has a rival plan let him publish it, with figures, as a man of data should do. If he doesn’t, then his whole campaign is based on one position; take power and undo the reforms that are doing exactly what he said he would do. And in reversal? The data will turn against him: pay for the subsidy he claims he will restore, and bring back the multiple exchange rates which do not support international investment. The man who taught a generation of supporters to “check”, can’t be asking the country to trust a policy he cannot put on paper.
It is most obvious that “Mr. Data” has a reason not to do this math. The subsidy he attacks its removal was a transfer from the poor to the rich. The multiple naira he laments was the tool of the few connected. The tax reform he criticizes is the one that now taxes the multinationals and exempts the low earners. No doubt, the current figures support the very reform he promoted. This is precisely why he will not put his own on display.
So the demand is simple, and it’s the demand that the entire 2027 electoral seek: Show us the numbers Mr. Obi: the cost of subsidy, and the price of the naira. Do not hesitate to post the alternative. You have always challenged Nigerians to check. Now check it yourself.
A movement that lives off the spreadsheet, cannot go for the presidency on the strength of a slogan. If Obi can’t produce the figures, then the only data that matters is already on the table in Tinubu’s policies as captured in the reserves, the surplus, the refining, the student’s loan, and the new wage. That is the true “Mr. Production”.