PETER Obi, a former Governor of Anambra state and Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate for Nigeria’s 2023 elections, had early this August engaged in a war of words with his counterpart from the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over counter-accusations of spreading fake news and maligning his candidacy.

Tinubu Campaign Organisation, in a statement signed by its Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, had called on Obi to rein in his supporters, who it accused of spreading fake news about its candidate.

But in a reaction, Obi absolved his supporters of spreading misinformation online, saying that the vitriol of ‘fake news’ attributed to ‘Obidient’ supporters is actually the handiwork of the opposition.

As we approach the official kick-off of the 2023 election campaign, it has become evident that the opposition have adopted a negative strategy of trolling and insinuating fake news and misinformation in the social media space and blaming the Labour Party, its presidential candidate and their supporters of same,” Obi said in a Twitter thread he posted via his verified handle @PeterObi on August 18, 2022.

The Labour candidate is popular for quoting facts and figures while speaking about challenges facing Nigeria, alongside his plans and policy for the country if elected. However, when some of these claims were subjected to verification, quite a good number of them have been found to be inaccurate.

In this recap, The FactCheckHub highlights five times that Obi quoted misleading facts and figures.

1. Claim about the number of Nigerian players at NBA
Responding to questions on a Channels Television programme, “Politics Today” aired on July 25, 2022, Obi claimed that out of 150 players playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), almost 100 are Nigerians.

Obi said: “…proud, celebrating their talent. And this is what we have everywhere. If you go into American NBA, out of 150 players, almost 100 are Nigerians. These youths are so talented that they are where you need to focus to reach their talent and productive energy to turn around the country…”.

But fact-checks by the AFP and Daily Trust show that the claim is FALSE.

Founded in 1946, the NBA is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. It is the premier men’s professional basketball league in the world.

According to NBA, about 109 international players registered for the league’s 2021-2022 season, and only five are from Nigeria.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/five-times-obi-quoted-wrong-figures-in-public/

Show us who has not made mistakes with figures so we compare , even the latest computers are also prone to mistakes

Quoting wrong figure is not a big deal. Focus on the message in general