The Edo delegate challenged the census figures of Northern Nigeria.
A mild uproar broke out at the National
Conference on Wednesday following a threat by former Assistant
Inspector-General of Police, AIG, Ibrahim Ahmed, to arrest a delegate
from Edo State, Chris Agbonwanegbe, for challenging the census figure of
Northern Nigeria.
Mr. Agbonwanegbe, who was contributing to the
report of the Conference Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms
of Government, had challenged the census figures bandied by states in
the North.
He called on delegates to address the
injustice that led to the creation of more states and local governments
in the North as against what is obtainable in the South.
Mr. Agbonwanegbe made a specific reference to the disparity in the number of local governments in Kano and Lagos states.
He argued that while Lagos has the highest
number of people in Nigeria, it has only 20 local government areas,
while Kano with a lower population has 44.
As the Edo delegate was addressing the
Conference, his Northern counterparts shouted and rebuked him for daring
to challenge the population of Kano.
But Mr. Agbonwanegbe stood his ground and
insisted that sustainable development would continue to elude the
country if steps are not taken to conduct reliable census to gather data
for national planning and development.
He, however, lamented that Nigeria does not
have the capacity to conduct a free and credible census, and suggested
that the United Nations, UN, be invited to conduct census for the
country.
He noted that if the UN is allowed to conduct
a credible census, the country would have correct figures that would
finally put the long years of population disparity to rest.
Mr. Agbonwanegbe said, “I did my National
Youth Service Corps, NYSC, programme in the North. So, I know what I saw
during my service years. I can authoritatively tell you that there is
injustice in this country.
“How can a state like Katsina or Kano have
more local government areas than Lagos which has the highest population?
It is obvious that there is injustice and this should be addressed.
“From previous censuses we have had, it is
obvious that Nigeria cannot conduct a credible census. We need to invite
the United Nations to help us in conducting a census that will be
accepted by everyone and finally put the argument about the region with
the highest number to a rest.”
Mr. Agbonwanegbe’s submission did not go down
well with many delegates from the North who almost threw caution to the
wind in a bid to stop him from speaking further on the matter.
While the Northern delegates screamed and
raised a point of order to stop the Edo delegate from continuing to
speak, Conference Chairman, Idris Kutigi, ignored them.
But the former AIG, Mr. Ahmed who could not
hold back his anger flouted the rule of the house by screaming, “Arrest
him! Arrest him now!”
Mr. Ahmed remained on his feet shouting, thereby polarizing the Conference along Northern and Southern lines.
While the delegates raved and ranted, another
Kano delegate, Junaid Mohammed, went and met with Mr. Agbonwanegbe and
two of them walked out of the chamber, holding hands and talking.
As the duo were leaving the chamber, some
Northern delegates castigated Mr. Kutigi for refusing to stop the Edo
delegate from challenging the population of Kano State.
Not long after, former governor of Ogun
State, Segun Osoba, re-echoed the position of Mr. Agbonwanegbe and
called for the reversal of the injustice he said characterized the
number of local government councils in some parts of the country.
Mr. Osoba drew attention to Lagos State,
which he said contributes more than 80 per cent to the nation’s Value
Added Tax, VAT, yet does not have the required number of local
government areas unlike states in the North.
“The era of trying to manipulate census
figure is over. With the help of Google, we can now get the number of
people in a particular area. We can use that to conduct our census. I do
not subscribe to the fact that the United Nations should conduct our
census for us.”
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