LEGISLATIVE MUSINGS: ISSUE #4 - THE IMPERATIVE OF A CREDIBLE NATIONAL POPULATION CENSUS IN 2016

EGHEOMHANRE EYIEYIEN FOR SENATE 2015 (EDO CENTRAL SENATORIAL DISTRICT - ESANLAND)

LEGISLATIVE MUSINGS

ISSUE #4.

THE IMPERATIVE OF A CREDIBLE NATIONAL POPULATION CENSUS IN 2016

Below is the news story as reported by Punch newspaper of Wednesday, 28th August, 2013, regarding the query issued to Chief Festus Odimegwu, the Chairman of the National Population Commission, by the Presidency....

Presidency queries Odimegwu, NPC chairman
AUGUST 28, 2013 BY FRIDAY OLOKOR
(http://www.punchng.com/news/presidency-queries-odimegwu-npc-chairman/)

“The Presidency has queried the Chairman of the National Population Commission, Chief Festus Odimegwu, over his reported comments on the nation’s past census.
Our correspondent gathered in Abuja on Tuesday that the Presidency felt the comments negated his position as the NPC boss.
A source in the Presidency said, “Odimegwu was queried over some comments that were credited to him in the newspapers.”
Before the source spoke, there were speculations that he was suspended. Odumegwu, however, denied both the suspension and the query.
“There is nothing wrong,” he said when contacted on the query and the alleged suspension, adding, “it is the propaganda of those who are jittery concerning the reforms we are bringing to the NPC.”
“What they are saying is not true; it is blackmail. It is propaganda and that is their wish. You should know that if wishes were horses, beggars would be riding every day,” he stated.
Odimegwu had in a recent interview with journalists in Abuja said the country had not had any credible census since 1816.
He had blamed the irregularity on the distortion and falsification of figures for selfish and political reasons.
Odimegwu said, “No census has been credible in Nigeria since 1816. Even the one conducted in 2006 is not credible. I have the records and evidence produced by scholars and professors of repute. This is not my report. If the current laws are not amended, the planned 2016 census will not succeed.”
But the Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankanso, at a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan faulted the appointment of the NPC boss.
In an interview with State House correspondents, Kwankanso “I also raised the issue of the Chairman of the National Population Commission headed by one Festus Odimegwu.
“We are not happy about that appointment, and think that it was a mistake. Odimegwu shouldn’t be there in the first place, why because, you see unfortunately we were together, somebody read his curriculum vitae.
“He had only one thing in alcoholic industry, all his life. And my guess is that he’s taking a lot of his products and that is why we feel that his appointment is a mistake because he cannot be the Chairman of NPC and at the same time attacking what his predecessor had done.”
The NPC, in its reaction, faulted Kwankwaso’s comments.
In a statement by the Chairperson of the NPC Public Affairs Committee , Oluseyi Aderinokun-Olusanya, the commission said “the governor’s call for the sack of NPC chairman was diversionary, ill-advised and a reckless attempt to politicise the yet-to-be conducted 2016 census.” ”



Essentially, the contentious statement by Chief Festus Odimegwu is as follows: "No census has been credible in Nigeria since 1816. Even the one conducted in 2006 is not credible. I have the records and evidence produced by scholars and professors of repute. This is not my report. If the current laws are not amended, the planned 2016 census will not succeed."

And here is what Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwanso said in reaction: "I also raised the issue of the Chairman of the National Population Commission headed by one Festus Odimegwu. We are not happy about that appointment, and think that it was a mistake. Odimegwu shouldn't be there in the first place, why because, you see unfortunately we were together, somebody read his curriculum vitae. He had only one thing in alcoholic industry, all his life. And my guess is that he's taking a lot of his products and that is why we feel that his appointment is a mistake because he cannot be the Chairman of NPC and at the same time attacking what his predecessor had done."

So what really is wrong with what Chief Festus Odimegwu said? Who does not know that all our past census figures were falsified? How can Kano State have about the same population with Lagos State in 2006 as was the case three decades earlier before the Old Kano State was broken into the present Kano State and Jigawa State? How can the population of Nigeria's Sahel regions be more than its coastal regions unlike the situation in other West African countries and the well established global phenomenon in human settlement patterns? Why is Gov. Rabiu Kwankwanso already afraid of the upcoming National Population Census in 2016?

Even our telecommunication companies have a fair idea of Nigeria's true population and where Nigerians actually reside the most. They know where their subscribers are. We must determine to have a truthful and accurate National Population Census in 2016.

And we must not exclude religion from the census questionnaire this time as was the case in the 2006 National Population Census when former President Olusegun Obasanjo succumbed to pressure from the Nigeria Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs to remove religion from the questionnaire so as to perpetuate the fallacy that Muslims are more than Christians in Nigeria.

Truth is sacred. And it is the truth which one knows that sets one free. It is time we know the truth about our population and our demographics.

 God bless Nigeria!

Esan di fure!

Nigeria di fure!!