[GIST] N400billion For 2022 Census Is Misplaced Priority; Focus On Unemployment, Insecurity – Civic Group, HEDA Tells Nigerian Government
The Human and Environmental Department Agenda (HEDA), a civil organisation, has said the N400billion proposed for next year census in Nigeria is a misplaced priority.
The group said other issues in the country like insecurity, unemployment and infrastructure decay could be fixed first with the fund.
These were revealed by the Chairman HEDA, Suraj Olanrewaju, in an interview on Tuesday.
He said these following the N400billion budget proposal by the National Population Commission (NPC) and the objection raised by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Smart Adeyemi, among other concerned Nigerians.
HEDA Resource Centre has joined forces with Senator Adeyemi to raise eyebrows not only on the jumbo budget but on the rationale for conducting the census at this precarious time in the history of Nigeria.
Olanrewaju affirmed that though collection and collation of data is very essential for planning, decision making and policy making, howbeit; there are other exigencies begging for attention in the country today, therefore- conducting census at this critical time was not the best thing to do if Nigeria must come out from the woods.
According to him, it would be deadly to ignore the warning which the chief of Army gave about security situation in the country when the Chief Of Army Staff envisaged that the military would have more security challenges in 2022 going forward.
“We must be alive and safe before we come out to be counted. If NPC go on to conduct this census, many people would be omitted because not all nooks and crannies would be reached by NPC officers. We should first make the country safe for living before we talk about census," the HEDA boss said.
“If we have such amount of money for census alone, why not deploy it into other projects with a sure hope of greater returns both in the short and long run?
"We have unemployment challenge, Infrastructure deficit, among others which is telling on Nigerians adversely, we need to tell ourselves the truth and do the right things at the right time and place with the right resources, with right motive and achieve the right results,” Olanrewaju added.
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