Regular, proper data collection critical to development — FUTA don

A Professor of Statistics at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, Barnabas Adebola, has urged governments at all levels to encourage carry out regular and proper data gathering for proper planning and for the benefit of the society.

He also recommended training of more statisticians in the country to ensure data integrity and sanctity.

Professor Adebola gave the advice while delivering FUTA’s 181st inaugural lecture on Tuesday June 17th, 2025.

Adebola, who spoke on ‘Many Are Called but Few Are Chosen: Understanding the Hide and Seek Game’, said quality data gathering using statistical methods in attaining precision and enhancing planning is critical to planning and focused developments in all sectors.

To fast-track return to systemic quality data gathering, he said, “There should be enabling laws to bring about strong collaborations between government, nongovernmental organizations, and universities in the area of quality and unbiased data gathering and usage.”

Adebola also called on the government to establish regional laboratories equipped with state-of-the-art facilities that will be used for quality data collection, presentation, analyses and interpretation for decision making.

On the relationship between statistics and data, especially in the area of sampling, the don said “Statistics is about data. Statistics and data are two distinct quantities. Data can exist without statistics being computed, but statistics must have data to be computed.”

Stressing the importance of statistics to the populace, Professor Adebola recommended having knowledge of the subject matter, especially to the younger generation.

He said “I am recommending that every young person should endeavour to learn something about statistics as soon as they can. Dismissing this advice due to ignorance or because it calls for thought may have phenomenal consequences in the nearest future.”

And to the older generation, he said “Make it a point of duty for those under your tutelage and training to look into this subject matter.

“Whosoever you are, if your work calls for interpretations of data, you may be able to do without statistics but you will not do so well for lack of basic technicalities,” Adebola, a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (FRSS), UK; member, Chartered Institute of Statisticians of Nigeria (CISON), and member, International Statistical Institute (MISI), concluded.

In her opening remarks as the chairman at the lecture, the vice chancellor, Professor Adenike Oladiji, described Professor Adebola as a great scholar in his field who has made the university proud in teaching, training and research activities.

She said his intellectual acumen is not in dispute as it has yielded in producing younger generations of statisticians who are doing well in their different ports of call.

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