Statistician advises FG to conduct population census

Emeritus Professor of Statistics, Timothy Bamiduro, has advised the Federal Government to conduct population census to gauge the nation’s population for effective planning and development.

Bamiduro gave the advice in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday in Abuja.

He said that census was conducted every 10 years in most countries, but that Nigeria had not conducted it for a long time.

Our correspondent recalls that the last census in Nigeria was conducted in 2006.

“The census should form the basis of activities and should be conducted every ten years. The changes between 10 years could be so drastic.

“The Federal Government should invest in conducting census and it should not depend on external donors to finance census.

“The donor agencies have their own concern or objective which may not coincide with Nigeria objectives.

“For example, when we did Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS III) 2005 to 2007, it was sponsored by UNICEF.

“UNICEF had its own demand and requirement from the survey,’’ he said.

Bamiduro, however, urged the Federal Government to pay more attention to statistical production in the country.

He also advised the government to increase budgetary allocation for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

“I was surprised when I heard that N10 million was the annual budget for maintenance for NBS, which is very ridiculous; A National Bureau with N10 million?

“A single project in NBS should cost more than that, the outcome of is that all the National surveys they do in this country whether MICS or National demographic and Health Survey will be financed by donors.

“Government should be more serious about statistics, ’’he said.

The don, however, emphasised on the role on statistics in the nation’s building, adding that the country needed to develop all the sectors of the economy through adequate data.

“We have to develop all the sectors; to do all these, you need data, you need information, not information but right information, do right analysis and right interpretation.

“These should lead to policies, planning and to programmes.

“Let me tell you, in Britain, the Chief Statistician is a member of British Cabinet and our Statistician General in Nigeria is an observer.

“They call him when they need figures; he is supposed to be a permanent member of the cabinet because there is nothing you can do without statistics.

“In Canada, it is the same thing, same in USA. The USA Census Department is like the State Office so but here it is not so,’’ he said.