Obi Faults Tinubu’s Kenya Comparison, Points Out Nigeria’s Challenges

Peter Obi, who ran for president in the past, has said that President Bola Tinubu has lied to Nigerians.

He said this after President Bola Tinubu said that Nigeria is better than some African countries, like Kenya.

In a post on his 𝕏 account on Monday, he told Tinubu to stop lying to Nigerians with propaganda and downplaying the country’s security and economic problems.

Obi said, “Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently said in Yenagoa that Nigerians should take comfort in being ‘better off than Kenya and other African countries.'”

The former leader of the Labour Party (LP) said that Tinubu’s comments may have been meant to make the effects of Nigeria’s economic problems and rising fuel prices less severe, but they “risk downplaying the severity of the current crisis.”

“It reminds me of the story in the Gospel of Luke (18:9–14) about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. He said, “The Qur’an (53:32) gives a similar warning about being self-righteous.”

Obi said that these kinds of comparisons, like the Pharisee who bragged about being better than others to hide his own spiritual emptiness, are more of a refuge than a solution.

“This backed up an earlier dismissive comment by President Ahmed Bola Tinubu during the campaign: ‘Na statistics we go shop?”Statistics are still very important,” Obi said. “They are the language that countries use to understand their situation and plan their progress.”

“No nation can progress in isolation from quantifiable realities or devoid of peer comparison.

“Comparisons, when correctly established, serve not as means of escapism but as instruments of accountability.” He said, “What is wrong is not comparison itself, but comparison without credible, verifiable data—just tax collector comparisons that make things better but don’t fix them.”

Obi goes on to show more data and says that Nigeria is behind Kenya in a number of important development areas.

He said, “Kenya always does better than Nigeria on important development indicators like security, the Human Development Index, life expectancy, GDP per capita, literacy rates, and access to electricity.”

He went on to say, “Nigeria is the fourth most terrorized country in the world, but Kenya is not one of the ten worst.

Kenya is ranked 143rd out of 180 countries on the HDI, with a coefficient of about 0.630. Nigeria is ranked 164th out of 180 countries, with a coefficient of about 0.530.

Its GDP per person is about $2,200–$2,300, while Nigeria’s is about $807–$835.

Kenya has a poverty rate of about 43% of its population (about 23 million people), while Nigeria has a poverty rate of about 63% (about 150 million people), which is more than six times that of Kenya.

The average person in Kenya lives for about 67 years, while the average person in Nigeria lives for about 54 years. Kenya’s literacy rate is about 81–85%, while Nigeria’s is only 62–65%.

Obi also talked about differences in infrastructure, education, and the overall stability of the economy.

He said, “Kenya has more access to electricity than Nigeria, which has one of the lowest levels of access to electricity in the world.” There are about 3.5 million children in Kenya who are not in school, and about 20 million in Nigeria.

“Kenya’s inflation rate has been around 4.5% or lower for the past three years, but Nigeria’s has stayed above 15% during that time.”

Obi also said that Kenya’s exchange rate has stayed around USD 1 to KES 130 for the past three years. In the same time period, Nigeria’s exchange rate went from below ₦500/$1 to above ₦1,250/$1.

He stressed that “even with what’s going on in the Middle East and rising oil prices, Kenyans have not seen the same sharp rises in the prices of oil products as Nigerians have.”

Obi told President Tinubu to stop using what he called “self-consolatory rhetoric” and instead face the facts about the country with honesty and responsibility.