Agba explained that the government has not conducted a census in almost two decades due to the change in administration, recession, and COVID-19, among others. He said the census would be digital, green, and transformative, adding that beyond insecurity and cultural issues, funding remains a major challenge for the exercise.
We have had it rough with our economy with mismanagement and its twin sister of manifest gross incompetence of the handlers of our economy. But the anchor of woe holding us perpetually down at the harbour of misery is cast by the Captain of our ship, President Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari should take care of us till may rather than count us.
The inability of the “NEPA bill” certified ruler was finally laid to rest on the Naira redesign policy saga, how in the world did he allow Emefiele to confuse him into this unending trauma of naira redesign and swap?
The presidential election was the reason given; to stop vote buy, election is over, Supreme Court has extended the date, yet both new and old notes are no where to be found. If you think we made any progress in 8 years of this administration then you must be kidding. This administration as constituted lacks the capacity to conduct census!
We funded INEC’s international disgraceful election with N305 billion, weeks to election Emefiele presented the Naira swap idea and our inept President jumped on it without caution.
The latest is the adventure to count the very important you at the cost of 869,000 (eight hundred and sixty-nine thousand naira only). You! Yes, that is how important you are, that we can’t wait for the economy to leap out of recession heading for recovery before you are counted. And it has to be before Buhari will hand over to the President elect on May 29, 2023.
The Federal Government says over $1.88 billion (N869 billion) is needed to conduct the 2023 population and housing census. If you divide that amount by 200 million which is our speculative number, it will give the worth of counting YOU at 869,000k. I don’t know how many Nigerians will want to be counted for such amount of money?
In April 2022, the federal government announced that it would conduct the census in April 2023 after the elections. Speaking at a high-level partner engagement in Abuja on Monday, Clement Agba, Minister of state for budget and National Planning, said the federal government has provided 46 percent of the budget.
Agba said there still remains an outstanding of N327.2 billion needed to carry out the census effectively.
“The total requirements for this census, including the post-census activities, is N869 billion, this is about 1.88 billion US dollars,” he said.
“When you hear the numbers, they really look very huge. Censuses all over the world, the average is between four to six dollars. However, in the United States, they spend $16 per person. In Botswana, they spend about $10 per person. So Nigeria’s $6 per person, you’ll agree with me, is very reasonable.
So far, the government has spent 291.5 billion naira which is $632 million. This is about 46 percent of the requirement for the census. I know this time around we’re not just doing only the population census, we’re also doing a housing census.
“So the additional requirements for the critical items to ensure the census is done is 327.2 billion naira. This is about 709.9 million US dollars.”
Agba explained that the government has not conducted a census in almost two decades due to the change in administration, recession, and COVID-19, among others. He said the census would be digital, green, and transformative, adding that beyond insecurity and cultural issues, funding remains a major challenge for the exercise.
Here goes the real issue! Begging has been upgraded from our 20 million out of school children to become the shameless flaunt of the occupiers of government!
Our Honourable minister dis-honourably said; the government needs support from the public both “in cash and kind”, to among other things purchase tablets for enumerators, internet and data connectivity as well as conduct training.
Just when you think you have seen it all, there goes our APC again. Dear Lord in Heaven lead us away from the tortuous path of this party and their party men, may this trauma not continue with us beyond May 29, 2023!
This exercise should therefore be suspended for God’s sake! While the estimate is rather too exorbitant, there is no money for such big elephant project and budget now in Nigeria. Thank you.