Barely 24 hours after urging Peter Obi to rejoin the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Sowunmi, the party’s chieftain, has advised the 2023 Labour Party Presidential candidate to think Nigeria first and stop demarketing the country.
Sowunmi offered the advice in his reaction to Obi’s X post, in which the ex-presidential candidate, during his visit to Johns Hopkins University in the United States, compared Nigeria’s economic growth with China, Vietnam and Indonesia from 1990.
In his analysis, Obi 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.
According to Obi, between 1990 and 2025, the three other countries moved up to the high category of HDI, while Nigeria fell into the low category.
“Within the same period of 35 years, from 1990 to 2025, the GDP Per Capita of these comparable nations have all improved. As of 1990, while Nigeria had a GDP per capita of $556, China had $317, Indonesia had $578, and Vietnam had only $99. Nigeria, obviously, had higher GDP per capita than China, while Vietnam had less than one-fifth of Nigeria’s per capita. Today, Nigeria’s per capita is about one-fifth of Indonesia’s ($5000) and Vietnam’s (4400) GDP per capita and below one-tenth of China’s (1300) GDP per capita,” Obi wrote.
Obi said that in the area of poverty, Nigeria had the fewest people in poverty in 1990, and 35 years later, it has more poor people than China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
“In the area of poverty, Nigeria with about 50 million poor people, had the least number of people in poverty in 1990 than any of the three countries. While China had about 750 million people living in poverty, Indonesia and Vietnam had 85 million and 60 million poor people, respectively. China alone had about 15 times the number of poor people than Nigeria. Today, however, Nigeria has more poor people than these 3 countries combined,” he said.
However, Sowunmi faulted Obi’s analysis, saying his submissions about Nigeria were extremely skewed.
He emphasised that “those who manipulate these figures have no metrics to measure the informal sector in Nigeria.”
He, therefore, advised Obi to immediately stop portraying Nigeria in a bad light at international forums, adding that “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.”
Sowunmi wrote: “With due respect, @PeterObi, these measurements are faulty. They are extremely skewed because 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.
“Are those you wish to impress outside our country not aware of the multiplier effect of their destabilization of the Sahel and its unfortunate consequences on Nigeria? You need to cut the crap. #NigeriaFirst.
Sowunmi’s reaction to Obi’s economic analysis followed his call on the former Governor of Anambra State to rejoin the PDP ahead of the 2027 election.
