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From Wilson Okereke, Afikpo
Former Abia Governor, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu on Monday said Nigeria will lose about N289bn if it fails to conduct the proposed national population census.
This was as he absolved President Bola Tinubu of masterminding increase in the nation’s 2024 budget by about N1billion, from N27.7trn to N28.7trn as passed by the National Assembly few days ago and signed by the President, this week.
The National Population Commission (NPC), last year, wanted to conduct the population census but it was later cancelled. The census may likely hold within the first quarter of this year.
Kalu fielded questions from journalists in Ekoli Edda, Edda Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Monday evening, when he attended a special thanksgiving service organized by the State Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Stanley Okoro-Emegha, one of his former aides.
He explained that the census caused the jacking up of the 2024 budget by the National Assembly and not the President as being speculated in some quarters.
The former Senate Chief Whip who admitted that Nigerians were passing through hardship, urged them to give the President little time to fix the problems of the nation.
“My grandmother told me that when you buy a piece of cloth, you have to scatter the cloth before you sew it. So, APC government is cutting the piece of cloth into pieces. When the cloth is cut into pieces, it will be sewed because if the cloth is not cut into pieces, it cannot be sewed.
“President Tinubu is busy cutting the cloth into pieces to be able to sew to give Nigerians a nice dress. People are actually suffering but Nigerians should give us few years for the cloth we want to sew to be sewed very well.
“It is not the President that jacked this 2024 budget to 28 trillion, it was the National Assembly which I am a very ranking member of the Appropriation Committee. For example, we are saying that we want to do a census and government has spent a lot on census and it was not captured in the budget and this census has to be done.
“They brought new figures from the National Population Commission and other relevant bodies and those were why the budget went up. The President did not know anything about the budget jack up, you can quote me. I served in the Appropriation Committee and I was there, I just came back on 31st December, I didn’t return home for Christmas, I had been working on this budget in the Appropriation Committee. So, it’s not the fault of the President. If it is his fault, I will tell you it is his fault, it is not his fault.
“So, I have just given you one good example. The National Population Commission has spent so much money on the census and this census supposed to come in the first quarter of this year and we are already in 2024 and they lack money. If they don’t do the census, Nigeria will be losing about N289bn. So, we have to put that money in the budget,” Kalu explained.
