By Kolawole Ojebisi
The National Population Commission(NPC) headed by Hon Nasir Isa Kwarra has come under scrutiny as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the opposition Labour Party (LP) and concerned Civil Society stakeholders have weighed in on an alleged N234billion released by the immediate past administration for the conduct of a yet-to-be conducted national census.
It would be recalled that during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari , the National Population Commission(NPC) had reportedly proposed a budget of approximately N800bn for the conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
However, many stakeholders including civil society group and opposition political parties have accused the NPC of failing to explain how the purported sum of N234bn said to have been released to the Commission for the yet-to-be held national census was expended or its current status.
It would be recalled that under the previous administration, the NPC had originally scheduled to conduct the proposed census in May 2023. It was however postponed.
However, according to reports and data, by May 2023, a total sum of about N224bn had reportedly been disbursed, in addition to N10bn reportedly approved in October 2020 for Enumeration Area Demarcation across 546 Local Government Areas.
However, 17 months into the present administration headed by President Bola Tinubu, the NPC has not come up openly to render an account and updates to Stakeholders and Nigerians on the status of the already disbursed funds.
This development has raised concerns abd triggered comments about ethical issues, openness, transparency and their implications for good governance, planning and resource management by the NPC.
Reacting to this matter on Saturday, some stakeholders raised questions about the silence on the part of the leadership of the NPC as regards the status of the already released funds. “ The Chairman of the NPC, Alhaji Nasir Isa Kwarra need to brief stakeholders on what is the status of the funds already released to the Commission in billions of naira. He needs to give updates on where we are with these funds, what has been done and where we are currently. The funds belong to the people of Nigeria and the NPC leadership should be in a position to render account transparently, “ Comrade Isa Hassan of the Forum for Accountability, said.
Also reacting, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, said: “In the last eight years of Muhammed Buhari, this issue of census has come up, and we have never seen it happen. Most of the years, the money released for census matters either just fly away or get swallowed by snakes. Yet, we have never seen any census conducted.”
He added: “In a saner clime, census is held every five years or thereabouts. But in Nigeria, it takes about 10 or 20 years to conduct one. Again, in the case of Nigeria, monies are budgeted almost every year.
“Now, if that chunk of money was released…Has the money been returned to the Central Bank or is it cooling in one house? We expect the security agencies to demand and request the money. What has happened to it? If the money has not been used or appropriated, it should be returned to the coffers of the Federal Government.”
However, in a swift reaction, the Deputy National Organizing Secretary of the APC, Nze Chidi Duru countered the LP’s claim, stressing that there’s no iota of truth in it.
He said: “I do not see any concern. I believe that is something that will happen and I know it will happen shortly. We cannot have any provision in the budget without capturing the population of the country and where the people are resident. So, it’s something that we require, and I know efforts are ongoing to ensure it happens.
“We cannot continue to play politics with critical data that is required to enable the government to provide comprehensively and adequately for the people of this country. Do we need a population census to know the demography and numbers of Nigerians today? Yes, we do. But should it be an event? I do not think so.”
He added: “I believe it is something that must be updated hourly, daily, monthly and yearly. We should not wait for an event, a particular time, to determine the number of Nigerians in the country. The population is so critical for data, budgeting and provisioning of what Nigerians need.
“In providing the dividends of democracy, we cannot afford not to have that data done. There should not be any hullabaloo about it. It is something that can’t even be done without setting a milestone or a deadline on when this can be done.”
