On April 19, 2023, a Twitter user, @PastorMarvy claimed that Anambra recorded 53.7 per cent poverty rate when the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi was the governor of the state.
@PastorMarvy said this while reacting to a tweet from Obi where he promised to work to mitigate poverty starting from northern Nigeria.
Obi served as the governor of Anambra from March to November 2006, February to May 2007, and June 2007 to March 2014.
The tweets reads: “The guy that had a 53.7% poverty in a population of 4 million as governor of Anambra state wants to pull 128.1 million Northerners out of poverty. This is why many countries sees us as Jokers because what is giving that guy the audacity?” (SIC).
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The tweet has generated over 50 retweets and likes as of April 22, 2023.
He later tweeted the photo of President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote and BUA Group chairman AbdulSamad Rabiu with a caption that reads :
“These are the people Peter Obi wants to pull out of poverty.”
These are the people Peter Obi wants to pull out of poverty. pic.twitter.com/lk1ADKnDSb
— Pastor Who (@PastorMarvy) April 19, 2023
THE CLAIM
Anambra recorded 53.7 per cent poverty rate during Peter Obi’s era as the governor of the state.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by FactCheckHub show that the claim is TRUE.
Poverty is generally defined as a state of being poor.
The 2010 Poverty report by National Bureau of Statistics captures poverty rates across Nigeria based on three different approaches namely: Absolute Poverty Approach, Relative Poverty Approach and Dollar per day.
According to the report, which documents the average poverty headcount rate across Nigerian states, Anambra recorded 53.7% poverty rate between 2009-10 when Obi was the governor of the state.
Between 2003-2004 before Obi became the governor, the poverty rate in the state stood at 41.4% meaning that the figure increased by about 28% under Peter Obi.
READ MORE : Doctored images of Obi, Abati, others at Lagos blue line rail inauguration circulate online
FactCheckHub could not access the poverty report for the period when Obi left the office in March 2014 because the National Bureau of Statistics did not release subsequent poverty reports until 2020. The report shows that Anambra’s poverty rate reduced to 14.8% in 2019.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Anambra recorded a 53.7% poverty rate under Peter Obi’s leadership as the governor of Anambra state is TRUE, according to data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
