By Suleiman Umaru and Lateef Adegbite
President Muhammadu Buhari, who has barely one month in office to handover to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos sate, p+opular, Jagaban, and the President – elect, on the platform of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, appears to have used the planned census slated for March 29th, to April 2nd, 2023, which was later shifted to hold between May 3, 2023 to May 7th, 2023, to test the waters if Nigerians will welcome it may have met a strong opposition to it.
Recall that the United Nations, UN, had recommended to the Nigerian government that census should be conducted every 10 years or five ears to be able to obtain the accurate data of the country’s population for planning purposes instead of depending on estimated population figures. The Buhari Administration may have key to the UN’s recommendations to conduct the census.
Many believe that the Katsna state born Nigerian President may been in a hurry to conduct the census, to equal the records of former Olusegun Obasanjo’s records in office, who had conducted the census of 2006. Moreso, they had feared that the Nigerian President had delayed the census excise to late March and early April, 2023, and subsequently to early May, 2023, ostensible to throw the country into chaos because of the controversy that may likely arise out of the conduct of the exercise.
But Buhari had said that conducting the census this year was borne out of his desire ‘’ to bequeath an enduring legacy of evidence – based planning for the country’s sustainable development’’. Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, had described the 2023, census, as ‘’a legacy programme for the Buhari’s Administration’’.
There is no gain saying the fact that Nigerians’ initial opposition to the census exercise was further galvanized by the fact that the ‘’Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, technology, BIVAS’’, which the Nigerian President had approved for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the close watch of Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, to be used in the conduct of the February 25, 2023, Presidential and National Assembly elections as well as well as the Mach 18, 2023, governorship and states Assembly elections including the supplementary governorship election in Adamawa, home state of Atiku bubakar.
They asserted that the use of the Zinox technological devices software to conduct the census exercise may not be different from the INEC BIVASAS , which Julius Abure, Chairman, Labour Party, LP, had said was manipulated to allocate figures to Candidates during the Presidential and governorship elections in some states of the Federation.
They may have alluded to the Adamawa state incident where the INEC, Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, a Lawyer, was said to have been compromised by Senator, Aishatu Binani, the APC, governorship Candidate in the state to declare her the winner in the state supplementary governorship election, which he did, may have given people room to see the planned 2023, census with the use of the PDA and CSP, software as another fraud .
However, Naisr Isa Kwara, the NPC, Chairman, had said that there was no need for people worry about the use of technology in conducting the next census in Nigeria as no room would be given to the politicians or interested group to manipulate the information on its server, once the government is ready for the exercise.
He noted that ‘’once an individual is captured by their machine ‘’,it goes directly to their server at the Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Headquarters, for thorough Data analysis. He insists that the census Personal Data Assistance, PAD and CSP, technologies will make the Nigerian census this time around as the 2023 census will be ‘’credible, reliable and acceptable’’.
Given that Buhari has left the conduct of the census to the next government, Ortom Samuel, a former minister of State Industry, Trade and Investment, during Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration, and outgoing governor of Benue state, where residents of Opaha and Adikwu Communities in the Apa Local Government Area, have cried out to the Federal government to intervene and establish a military base in their Communities to contain armed herdsmen attack in their area had earlier called for the exercise to be postponed.
He would want adequate security to be guaranteed in the country before the government could talk of census. The governor and argued that conducting the census between m March 29th, 2023 and April 2nd, 2023, would amount to injustice and deprivation of millions displace Nigerians from being enumerated. He was emphatic that the proposed census is coming with a hidden agenda of the government and should be suspended’’.
There is no gain saying the fact that the Nigerian President may have read the handwriting on the wall that the census exercise could truncate the country’s Democracy which, Tinubu, President-elect, would not find funny that that he has bowed to pressure to postpone it indefinitely.
This may have informed why he has given approval for the postponement of the census exercise after a meeting with some members of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, Kwara, the NPC, Chairman, and other National Commissioners of the Commission, at the Presidential Villa, on Friday, April 29, 2023.
Although, the government has postponed the 2023 census indefinitely, he has not failed to tell Nigerians of the critical need for the conduct of a population and housing census 17 years after the last census excise, in 2006, to collect up-to date data that will ‘’drive the geographical goals of the country and improve the living standard of the people through adequate planning.
The President may have given Kwara, the Chairman of the NPC, a cause to be happy about the funding of the census project when he disclosed that the N400 billion needed to conduct the census between March 29, 2023 and April 2, 2023, has been approved by the Federal Executive Council, FEC and the Commission officials wre said to have started spending the fund.
It was morale booster to, the Commission, which may have taken advantage of the opportunity to contract Zinox Technologies Limited, an indigenous , Information , Communications and Technology, ICT, firm, which was said to have delivered 100,000 electronic devices, PDA, to ensure the conduct of’’ a successful and credible the population and housing census’’for their privacy.
The outgoing Nigerian President who believes that the money that had been spent on the Commission to prepare for the suspended census was not a waste, noting that with ‘’the completion of enumeration and Area demarcation of the country, the training and recruitment of adhoc staff, procurement of Personal Digital Assistants , PDAs and Information Communication Technology, ICT, Infrastructure, appreciable progress has been made , which would help the incoming Tinubu’s Administration in the conduct of census in the country in a date to be determined in the future.
The President who could not hide his feelings had commended Kwara, the NPC, Chairman and his Team, for the methodology being put in place to conduct accurate and reliable census in the country. This is evident with the massive deployment of technology, which ICT experts had said ‘’ is capable of delivering a world –class census and laying a sustainable basis for enumeration exercise.
Although, the Nigerian President has postponed the 2023, census, due to mounting pressures from several quarters across the country, he was said to directed the NPC, Chairman and his Team ‘’to continue with preparations for the conduct of the 2023 census in order to sustain the gains already recorded and provide the basis for the incoming Administration of Tinubu, to Consolidate on these achievements’’.
Note that the huge allocation of $1.88 billion to the Commission in the 2023, Fiscal year budget for the conduct of the population and housing census may have encouraged the Kwara led Management to plan to recruit close to two million personnel for the exercise across the 774 Local Government Areas of the country, expected to be properly trained on how to handle the devices provisioned with ‘’the forms, maps and other digital enhancement’’.
The NPC, boss had said that the training exercise for the recruits is to ensure that ‘’enumerators do not go beyond the area designed for them to avoid over-count, under-count, gap or overlap. He was said to have given Nigerians further assurance that with the Zinox mobile device technology, particular, the Commission could monitor the enumerators on the field and ensure that the data provided by Nigerians was secure and well-managed.
The Nigerian President , has continued to received commendations, across , political divides, for taking the bold initiative to postpone the May 3rd, 2023 to May ,7th, 2023 census. Ortom, the outgoing governor of the north central state of Benue, may have sent a message to Buhari, who is expected to handover to the next Nigerian President, Tinubu, on May 29, 2023, that with the postponement of the census, the government should ensure that Nigerians whose Communities have been taken over by Bandits , in the n north western states of Zamfara, Kaduna, Kaduna and the north central state of Nigeria and the north central state of Niger including his state, Benue where armed herdsmen are terrorising communities regain their lands and return home.
The Benue state governor, would want the Nigerian Army Chief, by Lt. General Farouk Yahaya, to do exactly what he is doing in Borno state in Benue , by fast-tracking, restoring and enhancing security in Communities , terrorized by herdsmen to return of the inhabitants.
In a related development, Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra state and Presidential Candidate of the Opposition, Labour Party, LP, for the 2023, Candididat, for the February 25, 2023, election, who believes that the mandate freely given to him by the Nigerian people was stolen by Tinubu, the President-elect of the APC, and h headed, to Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to reclaim his mandate, may have kept politics aside to congratulate Buhari for the decision to postpone the census that all the arrangements has been made to facilitate the implementation, describing it as ‘’ propitious and a welcome development’’.
He may have said to the hearing of those that cares to listen that ‘’National census is a critical development and nation-building tool’’, meaning that the incoming Administration must take the implementation of the census exercise which could not be achieve by the Buhari Administration brecause of the time constraints serious for effective planning in the years ahead.
