Dogara Advises Government Against Conducting Census In 2018
Speaker Yakubu Dogara[/caption]
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has advised against the conduction of national census in 2018 as politicians may hijack the exercise.
According to the Speaker, the conduction of a national census would only make sense after the 2019 general elections.
Dogara, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Turaki Hassan, suggested that the exercise may be marred by political interests as politicians will likely manipulate the outcome.
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“This should be done when there isn’t so much at stake.
“I won’t advise anyone to conduct national census in 2018.
“If we are not going to achieve it in 2017, then we should just forget it until after 2019.
“If you conduct census at the niche of elections, there will be so much pressure, crisis and the lure for people to manipulate the figures for political reasons, such that the agency cannot even cope with.
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“We may have something that resembles reality, but I can bet it, if the census is conducted in 2018, the outcome will be doubtable.
“I know who we are and I know the kind of litigations, backlashes and the pressure, but we don’t need all that now.
“We have so many challenges; let us empower the agencies to keep building on the blocks that they will leverage on in the future in order to do the exercise.’’ Dogara said.
