Col Umar to Buhari: Suspend 2023 census, focus on security

FORMER Military Administrator of Kaduna State, Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (retd), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend the proposed national census billed for April 2023 and instead concentrate in tackling the insecurity confronting the country. 

The former military administrator and Chairman of the Movement for Unity and Progress, (MUP), in a statement issued on Friday, described the idea of conducting a census as shocking when the country’s stability is shaking. 

According to him, Nigeria was facing existential challenges caused by insecurity and collapsing economy, saying, embarking on a census would amount to a misadventure and waste of scarce resources. 

He, therefore, urged the federal government to suspend the planned census and focus its energies on securing the nation as well as conducting the 2023 elections. 

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The statement reads: “The decision of the FGN to seek and gotten the approval of the National Council of State to conduct national census in April 2023 must have come as a great shock to most well-meaning Nigerians. 

“A country that is facing existential challenges such as unprecedented level of insecurity, a collapsing economy cannot have as one of its priorities the conduct of a National census. 

“We, therefore, urge the Buhari administration to suspend what will amount to misadventure and waste of scarce national resources. 

“This Administration should focus all its attention on securing the nation and conducting the 2023 elections. “A National census at this point is certainly not a priority assuming that its conduct is possible,” he stressed.