A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Segun Sowunmi, has urged the 2023 Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to stop demarketing Nigeria especially at international forums.
Sowunmi said this while reacting to Obi’s X post on Friday, in which the ex-presidential candidate compared Nigeria’s economic growth with some countries.
Obi had during his visit to Johns Hopkins University in the United States, compared Nigeria’s economic growth with China, Indonesia and Vietnam from 1990.
In Obi’s analysis, the former Anambra governor said that in 1990, when the Human Development Index, HDI, measurement started, Nigeria, China, Vietnam and Indonesia were all classified under the medium category of the HDI measurement.
But between 1990 and 2025, the three other countries moved up to the high category of HDI, while Nigeria fell into the low category, according to Obi.
However, Sowunmi was not pleased with Obi’s analysis, insisting that the measures are faulty.
Sowunmi wrote on X: “With due respect @PeterObi these measurements are faulty. Extremely skewed for those who manipulate these figures have no metrics to measure the informal sector in Nigeria.
“You need to stop this, especially at international forums. You ought to place the burden on them and their crazy neoliberal policy and its deep state manipulations that put undue pressure on Africa!
“No one who wishes to lead a nation called Nigeria must be the de-marketer on steroids of the same country he or she wishes to lead. Stop it immediately,” he said.