A cheiftain of the defunct National Democratic Coalition, Chief Ayo Opadokun, has described the approval of N10bn for Enumeration Area Demarcation in 546 government areas within the country by President Muhammadu Buhari as a waste of public fund and not within the interest of Nigerians.
The EAD is that the process of delineating the whole acreage of the country into small geographical and demographic units.
The EAD may be a preparatory exercise for the particular census.
Opadokun while speaking with NaijaGistReporters on Tuesday described the exercise as premeditated and aimed toward favouring the interest of a specific region of the country.
He said this government cannot conduct a reputable , free and fair census unless the country went back to the federal constitution of 1960 upon which Nigeria secured her independence.
READ ALSO: Commercial tricycle operators sue Kano over N8,000 sticker
He said, "Now that they need voted another N10bn, I even have little question in my mind that it's just another instance of wasting public fund aside from public interest because it's meant to realize a specific agenda which is to suit the interest of current political operators.
"Nigeria had never had any credible census even from the times of the colonial masters. we've it on record how British collaborated and assisted to control the so-called census.
"So from that point upward, we've never succeeded in conducting free, fair and credible census."
Speaking further, Opadokun attributed the falsification and manipulation of census figures within the past to the prolonged military rule out the country, which favoured a specific section of the country.
He said, "If you mention restructuring, resource control, IPOB and therefore the likes, all of them are an equivalent thing. we should always return thereto negotiated federal constitution which our ethnic nationalities and nationalists prescribed because they recognised that Nigeria was an heterogeneous society with multiplicity of language, religion and custom.
READ ALSO: DISCO agent drugs 14-yr-old girl with 200ml tramadol, rapes her
"So, unitary government can never add an heterogeneous society. it'll certainly create injustice, inequity, abysmal disregard for the defence and promotion of rule of law.
"Nigeria has been clearly possessed by a specific set of individuals while people are onlookers."
On his part, a former governor of Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeife, condemned the timing of the census, adding that this government couldn't be trusted with the exercise.
He said, "It appears they do not care. Some people begin to suspect that a much bigger secession attempt by the govt in power for a gaggle of Northerners and that they are pushing everything towards the North. they're pushing every project to the North. they're pushing every appointment to the North.
"Census and election and such national activities are not any guarantee of fairness. Conscience is dead in Nigeria and what we've is comprehensive corruption and within the process nothing is sacrosanct and zip are often guaranteed.
"The only important thing now's to restructure. If you restructure and maintain some quite justice, then you'll talk about census but now it's not the proper time."
Recall that census had become a controversial issue in Nigeria to the extent that two had been annulled within the past (1973 and 1991).
NaijaGistReporters
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon