As rival political parties try to outdo each other with criticisms, the Obi-Datti Media has reiterated that the use of statistics by the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi will continue to rattle other candidates.
The disclosure was made in a statement signed by the Obi-Datti Media office and made available to Leadership.
They insisted that Obi’s issues-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, noting it as “the apparent disgruntlement from his competitors and the opposition political parties.”
According to the group, using statistics to back explanations is inconveniencing and upsetting as it might sound to his competitors in the presidential race, saying there is no backing down, or join their train, adding that it is seen globally as the domain of big businesses, especially in the age of the internet, big data, and machine learning algorithms.
The statement read “We very much understand the pricking the Obi statistics does to the old order in highlighting and bringing to the fore the rape they did to our dear nation, but there is no apology for following the global best practices to drive home points. Therefore, if you can’t beat them join them. If you have no statistics to offer apparently because you are mentally lazy or feel it would expose and contradict your past the more, the right thing to do is to join the winning train that has left the station”.
They maintained that the twist of reeling statistics by Obi and his Vice-presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmad “has successfully thrown many pundits and politicians off balance because they were never prepared for it”.
It read “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”.
Further the Obi-Datti Media office noted that statistics 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”.
However, despite the benefits of using figures to back claims, “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”.
