On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari hotsted a meeting with newly constituted Presidential Economic Advisory Council (ECA) in Abuja. 

After the meeting, Buhari debunked the statistical data on Nigeria published by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and Amnesty International. He claimed the data was inaccurate and stated he had tasked the (ECA) to devise accurate information gathering techniques. 

The World Bank and IMF have highlighted the deficits Nigeria faces in relation to its Gross Domestic Product. Other institutions such as the World Poverty Clock labeled Nigeria as the World Poverty Capital. 

Buhari also rejected statistics regarding the high unemployment rate and poverty released by the National Bureau of Statistics, a government agency.

The statistics regarding the human rights records which was released by Amnesty International have also been rejected by the government.

In a series of tweets, the president stated:

"We must domesticate our policies to reflect our local realities. While we very much welcome the cooperation and support we are getting from our friends abroad, it is important to make it clear that Nigeria can only truly move forward with homegrown solutions,” 

“This must extend to data collection as well. Today, most of the statistics quoted about Nigeria are developed abroad by the World Bank, IMF and other foreign bodies. Some of these statistics are wild estimates that bear little relation to the facts on the ground."

“We can only plan realistically when we have reliable data. As a government we are taking very serious steps to improve the quality of data available for policymaking, and today I charged the Presidential Economic Advisory Council to prioritize the collection of Primary data,”