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By Chukwuma Umeorah
National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) USA chapter has raised the fear that the planned census may fail to produce accurate human and housing population figures for the country.
In a statement by its Executive Director, Lloyd Ukwu, NADECO cited alleged fraud, manipulations, criticisms and complaints from within and outside the country that have trailed the just concluded general election as reasons to doubt President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government capability and sincerity in delivering genuine census for the country.
It further described the amount of money mapped out for the exercise as a waste, given the poor state of the nation’s economy, debt profile and the glaring possibility that the census may not yield a positive outcome.
“Elections and census form the cornerstone of democracy. Many crucial national decisions rely on census figures. So, if the Buhari administration could not count those who voted in the last elections, which makes Nigerians think his administration is marred with so much irregularities, where the number of voters in election are higher than registered voters, how are they going to be able to count the people the entire country which is much larger that the registered voters.
“In Nasir Isa Kwarra heading National Population Commission, NADECO and Nigerians see another INEC’s Mahmoud Yakubu.”
Ukwu claimed a humongous bill of N1 trillion (about $2.4 billion) has been penciled down for the census, averaging N5,000 per 200 million citizens.
“In our economic mess of about N77 trillion debt today and abject poverty nationwide, spending N1 trillion on census is not only wasteful, but dumb and criminal negligence,” Ukwu said..
The group decried the situation where the controversy accompanying the just concluded elections is yet to be resolved and the government was planning to add more chaos to the polity with a possible census controversy.
It also warned against a bloated population figures based on landmass by a section of the country, which would in future years be used against the people of Nigeria, especially southern states.
NADECO, which also queried the timing of the census on the eve of the exit of Buhari, said it would be better if the census was postponed or boycotted by the masses given anticipated agitations and disputes by aggrieved Nigerians in a situation where figures released don’t match reality.
