Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, a retired Nigerian Army Colonel and Chairman of Movement for Unity and Progress, has observed that the decision of the federal government to ask for the National Council of State’s approval to conduct census at this period of insecurity, is ill-advised.
The National Council of State, which is composed of the president and vice president, former presidents and heads of state, former chief justices, former senate presidents, on Thursday granted approval for government to conduct national census in April 2023.
However, the retired Colonel in a statement he personally signed on Friday, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend what he described as “misadventure and waste of scarce national resources.”
According to him, Buhari should focus all its attention on securing the nation and conducting the 2023 elections.
Dangiwa’s advise on the heels of the ongoing insurgency and activities of gunmen, which only on Thursday saw the killing of two staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Imo state.
With the banditry across the country, the visibility of the proposed national census becoming a success is questionable.
Read the statement below:
The decision of the FGN to seek and gotten the approval of the National Council of State to conduct National census in April 2023 must have come as a great shock to most well meaning Nigerians.
A country that is facing existential challenges such as unprecedented level of insecurity, collapsing economy cannot have as one of its priorities the conduct of a national census.
We therefore urge the Buhari administration to suspend what will amount to misadventure and waste of scarce national resources.
This Administration should focus all its attention on securing the nation and conducting the 2023 elections.
A National census at this point is certainly not a priority assuming that its conduct is possible.
