Demographer cautions FG against politicizing conduct of census
Date: 2017-05-01
A Demographer and Statistician, Mrs Ojuawo Moronmubo Oyebola has cautioned the federal government against politicizing the conduct of census in the country.
Mrs Ojuawo sounded down the note of warning in Ilorin , the KWARA State capital while answering questions on a Radio KWARA personality interview programme Playing Host.
According to her , the Nigerian people need sincerity on the part of the government and the agency responsible for the conduct of the exercise so that other communities would not be cheated .
She lamented that it was unfortunate that in the past census conducted in the country, the real figure of the nation's population were not gotten accurately either due to poor planning or deliberate strategy by some people to manipulate the exercise adding that that census was key to everything that revolves round a country.
The Demographer therefore challenged the government and the National Population Commission to rise up to the task and conduct an acceptable, credible and unbiased census during the forth coming exercise .
Mrs Ojuawo who is the Vice President of the KWARA Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, (KWACCIMA) in charge of agric sector, disclosed that the present executive under Alhaji Ahmed Raji has a ten point agenda which includes putting up a vibrant secretariat , membership drive , bringing the various interest groups both formal and the informal business sector under the chamber, partnership with the state government to boast the economy and organizing a befitting trade fair this year .
She described KWACCIMA, a non profits organisation as a group of business minded people who have come together under one umbrella to support its members and the state government in moving the economy of the state forward and not a pressure group.
The Vice President who is a full time farmer, said it's unfortunate that most Nigerians shy away from farming as they see it as a dirty job but described farming as a lucrative job and appealed to the unemployed and even the civil servants to go into farming as experienced during the Operation Feed the Nation.
She called on the Federal Government to modify the NYSC programme by placing more emphasis on vocation jobs during the period of their service and even as part of school curriculum so that they would shun government jobs either after graduation or after serving the nation.
Mrs Ojuawo described the girls child education as very crucial to national development and urged parents to pay greater attention to the education of their children and wards while government should fish out indigent students and assist them by catering for their education.
On the remaining kidnapped Chibuk girls, she urged the government to dialogue with their captives so that the children would be released and they would be reunited with their parents while the government should equally address the issue of the herdsmen and other security challenges facing the country.