The PDP Vice Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi made at least two inaccurate facts during the vice presidential debate conducted today. Obi got most of his statistics wrong on the issue of the economy.

One: Obi claimed that Nigeria generated $21billion in Foreign Direct Investment in 2014. This claim is incorrect. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Investment, the FDI inflow for Nigeria stood at $4.7billion as at 2014.

Two: Obi also claimed that 87 million Nigerians are unemployed. This is also inaccurate as the most recent data by the National Bureau of Statistics puts the unemployment numbers at 16 million. The claim by Obi is a gross exaggeration given that there is no logical way that the unemployment numbers could possibly surpass the total labour population. The National Bureau of Statistics Q3 2017 “Unemployment and Underemployment report” estimated that the Nigerian labour force stood at 85.1 million people. If Mr. Obi’s statistics were to be valid, it would mean that the country is in a state of full unemployment.