Why Tinubu should approve conduct of postponed population census —Ajayi, NPC federal commissioner

The federal commissioner representing Ekiti State at the National Population Commission (NPC) and former head of service in the state, Mr Ayodeji Ajayi in this interview with ‘YOMI AYELESO , speaks on the postponed population census, need for the incoming administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ensure the conduct of the exercise, among other issues.

 

When the federal government announced the postponement of the 2023 population census, many Nigerians believed the National Population Commission (NPC) was not  adequately prepared for it. What was the level of the preparedness before the postponement?

My take on this is to first apologise to Nigerians over the inability of the NPC to undertake the census as scheduled(May 3 – 7) . In any enterprise like census taking, there are so many stakeholders that are involved; the security agencies , those in charge of the funds, the ad hoc staff and other agencies that we work with. We are only sure about what we have done , we don’t have control on other agencies in both the state and the federal government but for us in the NPC, we were technically ready for the census to take off in May this year and let me lead you into the reason why I said that we were ready. First, the first task that must be accomplished in the quest for a census is for you to do Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) and we have successfully done that in 773 LGAs of Nigeria. The only one that we couldn’t go there physically we did hybrid EAD, to that extent, we had prepared all our enumeration areas ready for the census. Secondly, the training of workers to undertake various tasks on our behalf . We had trained 85 percent of manpower requirement, the only level we didn’t do training was at the local government, to train enumerators and their supervisors and these trainings are both international, national and some based on geo-political areas of the country, including states level. The only one that was remaining was the local government training which was the last people on the hierarchy of those who would conduct census, that was the only thing we had not done. Thirdly, we had awarded jobs for the supply of most of the things we require and we wanted to do electronic census. We had awarded jobs for the supply of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) devices and the ones for Ekiti state are in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) office here in Ado-Ekiti , like in other states and the Federal Capital Territory. Generators to power the PDAs in the local government areas, jackets, manual and others are already in place and if the new president say we should go back to the field , once we do the training I discussed, we can easily activate and move within 72 hours. To that extent, we are technically ready and for the first time, the NPC used an electronic platform to do all its recruitment. So, we have detailed information of everyone working for us including where they stay and account details; even payment were done from the Accountant General office. Also, we have done trial census and tested all devices and equipment to take off but the appointing authority , which is the president has the power to proclaim when to go for the census going by the law.

 

Looking at the reasons given by the government for the postponement, did it at any time come to NPC that the census might not hold?

Like I said, the president is not duty bound to sit us down like children and begin to talk to us that the reason for the postponement. He might have a superior  information to postpone it, it might be because of fund. I made bold to say that in all our efforts in the last eight years that we have been working on the census, the federal government has disbursed N200 billion to us. People are interested in the area of money and out of the N200 billion, if you award the contract for the supply of the PDAs for over N145 billion, that leaves you with about N55 billion and from that we did EAD, we purchased most of the other things we required. We will require about 900 enumerators across the country, among other supervisors and engineers. Let me tell you one thing, the procurement of the PDA was awarded by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) , it was not a thing that we sat down in the office to award because it is beyond our threshold. I was in a place recently and people were asking if we would ask for more money and I said if the president gave an approval about an amount, it does not mean that the amount has been handed over to the NPC; you draw the money on the basis of needs and all the payments we have made in the course of this census under Muhammadu Buhari had been done using the IPPIS platform of the accountant-general office. So, when people hear a large sum of money being allocated, they think we will be smiling  with money, it is not so.

 

The 2023 general election no doubt has further divided the nation along ethnic, religious and tribal lines and the census was scheduled right after the elections. Was the mood of the nation put into consideration by the NPC, especially considering the perception of citizens as regards the exercise?

Election and population census are not a Siamese twins, they are not the same.  We have no hidden agenda as regards the census and it is our desire to do a head-count and housing census throughout the country. We don’t bring politics into the issue of census otherwise, we will get figures that won’t enable various tiers of government to plan with data will supply them. We don’t look at politics.

 

Going forward, how is the commission planning to convince the new administration under the leadership of Bola Tinubu to see reason and approve the conduct of the census in the coming months?

Ordinarily, with the coming of a new government, you expect the president to be briefed and we want him to settle down in office for us to see him and he will take a decision as to whether we should move ahead or not.

But the truth is, the country as it is can’t afford to throw away the N200 billion that has been spent so far and you must forget that the incoming government requires data to plan in order to deliver on its electoral promises to the people. Sincerely, I don’t see Bola Tinubu cancelling what we have done so far, he might require some time to settle down before asking us to go back to the field. But for him to say , we can’t hold census, want will he use to deliver on his promises to the country? I see him as a father who will look at his priorities among competing demands. When we were doing the 2006 census in Nigeria, Bola Tinubu as governor Lagos was doing his own counting of people in Lagos because those things are required for him to deliver as a governor then. He has a higher task now and he needs to put the resources where the people we say we have a caring president, in view of that , he needs a data for him to make a success of his new assignment.

 

Globally, census should be held every 10 years but the last time we had it was in 2006. What is the NPC doing to ensure that Nigeria undertake its census at a record time.

We are futuristic in NPC and we have held talks with some of our legislatures in the National Assembly, they are working on a bill to make it compulsory for government to hold census every ten years as it is done in all other climes. Once that becomes the law and the president assent to it, then they will be duty bound by the law as regards that. We should not run away from the tools that will really require us to plan the future of this country. The use of estimated number of people in Nigeria is wrong and I believe the new government will want to settle that finally. Former President Buhari see the census as a legacy and that is why he was so supportive but it is a pity it won’t hold during his tenure. We will continue to remember him as a president who cared about data and gave the necessary support for us to hold the census.

 

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