Former Anambra State Governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has blamed the worsening poverty and hardship in Nigeria on the APC government’s arrogance and its unwillingness to learn from countries that have successfully pulled their people out of poverty.
Obi made the remarks on Tuesday in a statement marking World Statistics Day.
He said data and statistics are indispensable to good governance because they allow leaders to assess performance, measure progress, identify challenges and draw lessons from other nations.
He noted that the next World Statistics Day falls in 2030, but he chose to mark the occasion today, since it is usually observed on 20 October, to encourage Nigerians to appreciate the importance of statistics in national development.
According to him, nations grow by learning from one another, and Nigeria is no exception.
He recalled that the country adopted its presidential system from the United States, while its legal, educational, banking, health, communication and agricultural systems were inherited from the United Kingdom through colonial rule.
Good governance, he said, depends on acknowledging, borrowing and adopting global best practices, which also serve as benchmarks for measuring performance.
Obi pointed to Bangladesh, a developing country of about 178 million people, as an example of what is possible.
He said verifiable statistics show that between 2010 and 2022 the country lifted about 34 million people out of poverty and reduced extreme poverty from 12.2 percent to 5.6 percent.
He listed the drivers as agricultural growth, manufacturing for export, microfinance and NGOs, social safety nets, and investment in human capital and infrastructure.
He said these pillars are easy to understand and that a patriotic and effective government would have studied them humbly to determine how Nigeria could reduce its own poverty.
He added that the same lessons are available from Vietnam, Rwanda, Morocco, India and other developing nations.
The former governor described the APC government as incompetent and corrupt, accusing it of mistaking hubris for leadership and of lacking patriotism and the humility to learn.
He said its pursuit of state capture through control of national resources has led to reactive policies that produce poor outcomes.
Obi noted that Nigeria is now classified as the poverty capital of the world, with a poverty rate of about 63 percent and more than 140 million people living in multidimensional poverty.
He also referred to a recent UNDP report, which he said observed that earlier gains in poverty reduction appear to have been reversed. He asked how a country so richly endowed could record the highest increase in the number of people falling into poverty.
He added that in a more organised society, recent reports from local and international organisations on poverty, insecurity, inequality, unemployment and corruption would have forced the government to resign.
Obi ended by citing a principle of organisational learning, which holds that an organisation whose rate of learning is lower than the pace of change is becoming a dinosaur. He said a new and productive Nigeria is possible and that Nigeria will be OK.
