Why Peter Obi’s statistics is unsettling opposition, says LP

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The Labour Party presidential campaign council has said that the dimensions the party’s presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi brought into the nation’s electioneering has successfully thrown many pundits and politicians off balance because they were never prepared for it.

A statement yesterday by the Obi-Datti Media office pointed out that Obi’s issue driven campaigns, even though the correct and necessary thing to do in an ideal democratic setting, has remained foreign and unfamiliar to Nigeria’s political environment, hence the apparent disgruntlement from his competitors and the opposition political parties.

According to the statement, “The use of statistics and figures by Obi to buttress his points to Nigerians has helped to drive home his points, almost the same way the use of statistics and illustrations are handy in explanation of things.

“Since 1915, the use of statistics as a separate scientific discipline and an inevitable means of improving learning as propounded by R. A. Fisher has continued to be a huge framework for deepening knowledge.

“Therefore, Statistics is seen globally as the domain of big businesses, especially in the age of the internet, big data, and machine learning algorithms.

“It has become sets of mathematical equations that we use to analyze things. It keeps us informed about what is happening in the world around us especially as we live in an information age and much of this information are determined mathematically by Statistics help.

“Whether in business, politics or any life endeavor, informed correct data and statistics  concepts are necessary and inevitable.

“But notwithstanding all the potentials that abound in the use of statistics, the Labour Party flag bearer, Mr. Peter Obi has remained under attack for adequately using statistics to explain the challenges of the country and the way to go about it using inferences from other countries that passed similar road and have already scaled through.

“The Obi-Datti Media office tries to ask, why Nigeria is averse to any progressive ideas, especially in political circles despite not  making any meaningful progress in the old ways.

“But truth remains that Peter Obi and his Running mate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmad and their Obidient Movement cannot be aspiring to take back Nigeria from the grip of the old order using the same method that did not work.

“It’s therefore understandable seeing Obi and his team facing all kinds of attacks for using statistics in his campaigns because by it he has elevated the conversation beyond their reach.

“And has also exposed their vulnerability given the fact that statistics will further simplify the extent of the atrocities of the old order on our dear nation.

“At a recent Arise Television TownHall meeting for Presidential candidates, even the organizers mobilized themselves in the name of fact checking  to ambush and embarrass Obi on his statistics but couldn’t, instead they apologized to him for their own misinformation.

“Obi-Datti media office wishes to therefore underscore the importance of the use of statistics by our principal in explaining out issues and bringing it closer to our people and to say that as inconveniencing and upsetting as it might sound to his competitors in the presidential race, there is no backing down.”