The Chairman of National Population Commission (NPC), Chief Festus Odimegwu, met with business editors in Abuja and spoke on various issues including the way forward for Nigeria’s economic transformation, the planned nationwide census in 2016, and the need for Nigerians to remain at their locations for data capture, among others. Abimbola Akosile provides the excerpts
Coming into the National Population Commission as a renowned private sector player in a national assignment, can we know your vision, sir?

I am somebody in Nigeria that is well known because I have done a high profile private sector job. So, I came to this job with a reputation of corporate management excellence. Somebody, who is serious minded and who gets the job done. And when I was appointed to this job, I did not come with any preconceived ideas of my own because I am just the chairman; we have 37 other commissioners representing 36 states of the federation with the FCT. And then the chairman makes it 38 people on the board of the commission. So, being an experienced leader, you don’t have to go with your own preconceived ideas. But you would know what is right when you see it.

So, when I came, I engaged the 37 commissioners, the Director General of the commission, all the directors, all the deputy directors, all the assistant directors, and even all the managers and staff unions here at the headquarters were fully engaged, so that we can formulate the commission’s new strategic architecture, which covers the vision and mission that we want to pursue, the strategies with which to implement it, the processes and systems we would put in place, the structure that would deliver that strategy, and then the quality of technology and human beings that we want. This took us eighty days of working, at times from 10am to 12midnight. And there was excitement in the commission because the commission was almost sleeping-dead, because people hardly had anything doing. Some of the commissioners said they have never seen this kind of thing before.

So, together as a commission covering the entire commissioners, director-generals, deputy director-generals, assistant directors, all managers in headquarters and the staff union, we came up with a strategic architecture and the full operational plan to implement this strategic architecture covering the entire five years that we would be here and the full budget of that plan covering the five years that we would be here. This strategic architecture was formed with detailed operational plans, and a detailed budget amounting to N576 billion covering the entire work of the commission for five years.

After producing during these 82 days, I, being the internal consultant, we produced this strategic architecture, we put it in a firewall presentation with ICT power, with voice over and everything, we went to do the presentation for the President in August 2012. And the President said that this is beautiful, that this is wonderful. And in order to show that he agrees with what we have presented, there and then in the presentation, he set up a presidential committee for the centralisation of national demographic databank in NPC. That was because we had the vision to be the most responsive public organisation in Nigeria – responding to the needs of all the people in this country.

We had a mission that we want to be the best statistical demographic institution in the whole of Africa by 2017 because Nigeria has what it takes to achieve that. We cannot continue to flounder before the rest of the world. We had clear objectives to produce a 0.5 millimetre digital imagery of the whole country covering the 200,000 localities in Nigeria, which would enable us deliver on the charge that the President gave us during our inauguration.

We had a clear objective to conduct and deliver to Nigerians the first ever accurate, credible and reliable census. We have lived in denial for too long and we should begin to face our realities squarely if we have to take this country to the next level and gain respect in the comity of nations. We had a clear objective to develop a national regulation data infrastructure that would cover all the 200,000 localities in Nigeria, stream their data through a wide area network where every MDAs of federal government, State Governments, Local governments, organised private sector, all data users in Nigeria would plug and play and get the information they need for national development and global competitiveness.

We had clear objectives once we do the biometric census of 2016, to deliver to Nigerians a credible national ID card that is referenced in the household register of the nation, predicated in a building in Nigeria; backed up by demographic questions during enumeration that would sieve non-Nigerians from Nigerians. And we can also do this in all Nigerian embassies in the world, to capture all Nigerians in the Diaspora.

We had an objective that we are not just going to produce this database for the fun of it, but would have to champion evidence-based planning in Nigeria. Instead of people just scratching their heads and giving targets, we have evidence-based planning in Nigeria that will use demographic data from the National Population Commission, use social-economic data from National Bureau of Statistics and produce a national development plan that would improve the welfare of Nigerians that we have already characterised and defined, including their religion and ethnicity, so that we would begin to run Nigeria as a modern state.

The biometric census that we would do would be synchronised and centralised. Everybody enumerated would have his face taken, his iris taken, his ten digit prints taken in a centralised and synchronised system, so when one person goes to register one million times, the system would take just one. No matter the number of times you register the system would take one. So, this way, you can actually do the census over a period of three months, six months or even a year, and still capture real data of how Nigerians are with their full characterisation. We shouldn’t be afraid to define ourselves, and characterise ourselves.

We had a full objective of what to do, and which then says we would adopt a strategy to implement this, by leveraging the best technology in the world, the best competencies in the world, and fully resourced. That is our strategy –technology, competence and funding. And currently we are reviewing the original equipment manufacturers in the whole world, to select the best that would partner the National Population Commission in not just giving Nigerians the first accurate, credible and reliable data in this country for planning purposes, but to also enable them establish an enterprise architecture with us that is reliable enough for people to plug in and play, and get the service they deserve. So, for us, the accuracy of data is not the only thing, but the digital infrastructure it is incorporated in must be world class in order to give a reliable service.

The Ministry of Communications Technology can work with us, oversee what we are doing, but it must be developed Greenfield with the best in the world. And you know my background; that we would design it using private sector practises of transparency, openness and honesty that would be far better than what Galaxy can even imagine. So, if there would be debate, let the debate come from all corners, let’s take all of them now.

So, we have these plans because we want to use data to improve the quality of our population through planning and national development. So, our population would become an asset to Nigerians instead of a liability. Our population is not too much; there is no great country in the world that has a small population. China is over a billion, India too, the United States, Brazil, these are the great countries. But before your population can become an asset, you have to make sure that pregnant women have good nutrition so that the child would develop properly in the womb and the brain would develop properly. And once this pregnant woman has a child that is well nourished, we must make sure we plan education. You cannot plan education without data. You cannot revolutionise agriculture without data. We want to make sure we give power to people and create jobs. You cannot do all these things without data. You cannot even build roads without data. There is nothing you can do in a modern society without data.

So, in summary, we generate a strategic architecture as a team, and all the commissioners, everybody in this building acclaimed it. And then we have gone into implementation. The purpose of that is to generate data for planning; planning to improve the quality and welfare of all Nigerians. Because if any part of Nigeria is not good, no part of Nigeria is good. Because the people that come from the part that is not good would go to the part that is good, and they would be dealt with. People killed by Boko Haram in the north are not all northerners. People kidnapped in the South-East are not all South-Easterners. People that have experienced area-boys behaviour in Lagos are not all westerners. People that have been dealt with in the Niger Delta are not all from there.

Nigeria is one, and the best level of aggregation of a Nigerian is at the level of Nigeria – that is the level you achieve your full blossom. The moment you begin to go down the path of ethnicity and religion, you become less. So, we have a robust plan developed by the Commission developed for the benefit of Nigerians and that plan is running.

Do you have the adequate machinery to convince the public of this grandiose plan of yours?
The media has a role to educate and sensitise Nigerians. The chairman of our advocacy committee, our commissioner from Ogun State, who came from the media, is aware that we need sensitisation of the people. You need to educate the people. And it is not a mean task, because these are people in the 200,000 localities in Nigeria. But I don’t know how many we are because nobody knows the population of Nigeria. Everything you hear is guesswork, people quoting United Nations figures. The UN has no way to know the population of Nigeria.

So, the work that should be done to sensitise and educate people and get their support for what we want to do is massive and the media should help us to do that. I told you we have a detailed plan and a detailed budget; this is well recognised in that plan and budget. Once we have adequate funds, we would use all the available media, both the traditional media and social media, even films and interactions, to educate Nigerians about the benefits of having adequate, reliable census – that it is for their benefit that Nigeria is planned. You cannot co-ordinate the economy without data. So, that importance is well known to us, and we are working towards it.

So, the media can help us to write editorials, to ignore anybody that says that accurate data is not necessary, and insist on having accurate data. Because when we use it to plan Nigeria very well, it would be for the benefit of all of us. If not, nobody would benefit. So, you should help us to do that. And call your colleagues in other organisations to support the National Population Commission in the sensitisation, education, advocacy, and mobilisation of all Nigerians.

In the next census, have you considered the issues of ethnicity and religion?
I have read elsewhere where people said ‘why are you considering religion and ethnicity?’. My question is if you do not consider religion and ethnicity, what would you consider? Nigerians are proud about their religions and ethnicity. So, any demographic characterisation of any Nigerian without putting his religion and ethnicity is not complete. So we must consider it. If the National Population Commission is not allowed to do that, I would resign immediately. We must consider it because it is part of our characterisation. People who say we should not consider it what are they afraid of? They say we have more than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria, if you do a characterisation, why don’t you have a population of that?

If you do not know the population of Muslims in Nigeria and how they are spread in the 200,000 localities in Nigeria, how do you plan the establishment of mosques? How do you plan pilgrimages? How do you plan the shepherding of cattle and nomadic education? There are things that in planning, you must take Muslims into consideration. How can you plan it if you don’t have data? Every other country in the world has ethnicity and religion. Go and Google America, they will tell you the population of ethnicity and religion there; even small Ghana here, South Africa, the Scandinavian countries. So, if all the nations in the world that are making progress have ethnicity and religion, Nigerians also want it.

If you don’t know the number of Christians in Nigeria as they are spread over the 200,000 localities, how do you plan the establishment of churches? These are modern necessities in the characterisation of a group of people and any nation that does not have it is not a serious nation. We should not politicise everything in this country, including data generation. People like to hide behind ethnicity and religion, but when they steal they do it only for themselves. They don’t share their loot with their ethnic people or their religious people. If that was the case, Nigeria would have been a good country because everybody would have a fair share. The Sultan of Sokoto said yesterday that people should not go and hide behind the veil of ethnicity and use it to commit evil. And that is a good statement.
I think it is time all Nigerians start to speak up. Because if you see the mess that is going on and you don’t make comment on it, that is a criminal silence. I cannot be a party to that. If Nigerians want accurate, reliable, credible census, we would deliver it to them under my chairmanship of the Nigerian Population Commission. Under my watch, ethnicity and religion would be included.

Story Source:

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/odimegwu-biometric-census-will-aid-nigeria-s-economic-transformation/157307/