Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, is currently the Director-General, of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies and a former Minister of National Planning. In this interview with AYO OLA, he talks about the achievements of NILDS during his tenure and other national issues. Excerpts:
What are your achievements since you assumed duties as the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).
I was three years old on the saddle on June 3rd, 2022. The institute itself is a capacity-building institution for Nigerian legislatures and for critical stakeholders. Over the last 13 to 14 years of its existence, it has done a lot in the area of building the capacity of the parliament. Since I took over three years ago, precisely on June 3 2019, we have tried to build on what my predecessor did, in terms of enhancing the capacity of the national and ECOWAS parliament. But one great or remarkable accomplishment I made, was a clear departure from the past as we have started to bring capacity-building services to the sub-national level.
Under my administration, much has been done in enhancing the capacities of the senators, members of the House of Representatives, and parliamentary staff through diverse technical interventions. We have also been conducting post-graduate programmes; research, publications and dialogues. We have also ensured the facilitation of parliamentary exchange visits between Nigeria and regional parliaments like the ECOWAS parliament.
Upon assumption, we observed that little has been done in building the capacity of the legislature at the state levels. So, we tried to go down to the sub-national levels by partnering with a lot of donor agencies. One of such is the KAS (Konrad Adenauer Stiftung) Foundation, United Nations Women (On The Issue of Gender Inclusivity), Westminster Foundation, UK, the European Union and many other donor agencies. How do we get the capacity of the state legislature enhanced? How do we make sure that we are able to avail them of best practices across the globe in the areas of parliamentary studies, legislative procedures and practices?
I can say with all sense of pride and responsibility, that in the last 3 years, we have been able to cover about 29 states out of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Abuja.
We have ensured that we get such training, workshops and other capacity programmes down to the state level, and even to the local government level. An example of such is the pilot studies on training for the Area Councils in Abuja which were carried out in 2019. Since then, you can see that the services of NILDS, the training capacity, and the training needs, which were mostly tailored needs, have been greatly enhanced.
One major achievement of the institute under my leadership is in the area of internal reforms. There are many internal reforms we have embarked upon by ensuring that systems and appropriate mechanisms are put in place where necessary.
We run postgraduate programmes in partnership with the University of Benin (UNIBEN). We believe that the University of Benin is our sister university through which we run the various programme(s)and award certificates. In spite of its previous success, we,` however, needed to put up some structures that will beef up our academic content. So when I came on board, I initiated with the support of the Governing Council, the Academic Advisory Board comprising seven erudite professors across the country. One professor is representing one geo-political zone and the Chairman of the Academic Advisory Board is Prof. Nuhu Yakubu, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja.
The board has been able to beef up our academic content, give advice on academic programmes, and serve as a broker between UNIBEN and the Institute. So far, it has achieved much in ensuring that our academic content is in line with the National Universities Commission (NUC) and some other regulatory agencies in the country.
Through the Academic Advisory Board, we were able to get our Governing Council to approve the need for the core staff in the academic department to be elevated. One of such is that an academic staff/research fellow could rise to the level of a Professor in the Institute. So without going through any other university, without deferring to any other institution, my staff now under the tutelage of the Academic Advisory Board and with the approval of the Governing Council could rise to be a reader and a professor. We are almost at par with other academic and research institutions in the country.
Another major reform we have done is in the area of staff welfare and motivation. When I came on board, I met staff with a lot of grievances, grudges and complaints. These are complaints that border on productivity and output, which caused a lot of friction within the institute. In response to this, I set up a committee to look into those grievances, including grievances that centre on wrong placement and elevation. In addition, a good number of staff were on contract for years without being confirmed. Within a few years of my assumption of office, we were able to address all these issues.
One major landmark in the area of enhancing staff productivity that I achieved was in the area of promotion, incentive, motivation, salary, and allowances of staff, which were major issues before I came on board. Prior to my assumption, non-academic staff did not have any allowance outside of their basic salary. In order to ameliorate their plight, I was able to convince the Governing Council to approve a hardship allowance for non-academic staff. This is in addition to securing the Council’s approval for an upward review of the research allowances for academic staff so that today, one of the most motivated staff we have in this country, is that of the institute. That has positively enhanced their productivity and output as they are more committed to their responsibilities. In the area of career progression, many staff were stagnant on the same grade level for as long as six years. Having reviewed their cases, they have all been promoted and are currently on their appropriate levels.
What other achievements have your made?
One can not talk of restructuring and addressing grievances of staff without looking at the Condition of Service and Administrative Manual that was put in place. Before I came in, most of the above-mentioned grievances of staff had to do with the condition of service that was in use as there were no clear-cut policies on important issues like promotion. The first thing I had to do was to set up a committee with the support of the Governing Council and we reviewed the Conditions of Service and the Administrative Manual of the Institute. We ensured that members of staff made inputs in these documents. Today we have a new condition of service and Admin Manual for the Institute.
Another area worthy of mention is the area of discipline or quality control. We observed that for us to strengthen and put systems in place, we should ensure quality control. NILDS is an academic and research institution, hence, it is important to ensure that staff possess the necessary qualifications to carry out their job schedule. So one of the first things I did when I came on board was set up a committee saddled with auditing staff records, staff profiles and academic credentials. In that process, few staff members were found not to have acquired the required results and credentials and they have since been eased out of the system. The staff we have on the ground are those that we can boast of anywhere in the world. We have also tried to instil quality control and discipline. I want to believe that it is something that institutions of higher learning, including universities, should borrow a leaf from. It is not everybody that claims to be a professor or claims to have certain qualifications really has them.
We were able to do this without any hiccup because people were found wanting to know they were at fault and that they had done some infractions. Without any alarm, we were able to get them out of the system. That was part of the internal reform I was able to make. This would not have been able to come to pass without the support of the Governing Council under the leadership of the President of the Senate, Senator Lawan Ahmad, PhD, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honorable Femi Gbajamiabiala.
By and large, we set the pace. We put a sustainable foundation for us to leverage on and from there, the mandates of the institute have been accomplished in the last two years. The mandate of providing technical assistance to legislatures through bill-drafting, bill scrutiny, motion drafting, research, serialising dialogue and lectures, has been successfully implemented.
In addition, we have been active in the area of advocacy, speaking for the Nigerian legislature, on topical issues such as the autonomy of the Nigerian legislature, autonomy of the Nigerian Local Government and appropriation. We have been able to champion them.
So today, if anybody talks about the autonomy being granted to the legislature, the judiciary, or the local government, our institute is at the forefront of these advocacies.
Another fundamental thing is that the institute is not just for the legislature; with the amendment to the Act that set it up in 2018, we are mandated to perform the function of deepening democracy. We are mandated to perform the function of democratic studies, and the role of ensuring that Nigerian stakeholders abide by the ethics of democracy. In other words, it is the only statutory organisation or institution in Nigeria vested by an Act of parliament to deepen the democratic practices and procedures in Nigeria. By so doing, we have a department of Democracy and Governance.
In 2019, I met at an institute with four departments. As part of the restructuring, I believed that an institute of this nature needed to go beyond four departments for us to effectively carry out our mandate. So I made a presentation to the Governing Council and I can tell you that today, we have nine departments. These nine departments are Democracy and Governance; Training and International Cooperation; Economics and Social Studies; Finance and Accounts, Administration and Human Resources; Library; Internal Audit and Legislative Support Services. These nine departments were approved by the Governing Council. These are as against what it used to be in the past. In the past, we had Research and Training, Legislative Support Service, Finance and Administration and Democratic Studies. Today we have nine departments that support the DG in running the administration.
Any other legacy?
You can not talk of democracy or democratic studies without giving a medium through which you can reach the Nigerian people. We should not wait for elections to come before we start talking about people’s civil obligations, who to vote for and how to vote. One of such media is the establishment of Democracy Radio. A board for Democracy Radio was approved by the Governing Council and currently, the license for its operation is before Mr President for approval. It is hoped that before the year runs out, we shall go on air.
We also instituted the Distinguished Parliamentarians lecture series because of the belief that the parliament is being misunderstood and misrepresented. People do not know much about what the parliament does, hence, there is a wrong perception about the parliament. People perceive them as the most corrupt organ of the government.
To address this, there was the need to create a platform through which the Nigerian parliament can reach out to the Nigerian people and speak on issues. Accordingly, the Distinguished Parliamentarian lecture series was launched last year. The maiden lecture presentation was done by the President of the Senate. The second lecture is coming up in August and will be delivered by the Right Honourable Speaker. I must mention that participation is not limited to the current legislature but past presiding officers, and legislators from West Africa and the African continent, will be part of the speakers.
We also observed again as part of our mandate, that legal and legislative draftings, motion drafting and bill drafting, are critical components in legislative procedure and practices. But unfortunately for us in Africa, we have a dearth of drafters. Not many of our jurists, lawyers, and students that graduated from universities are trained in the area of legislative drafting. We have received in my institute people from other West African countries coming to ask for drafters from Nigeria. But Nigeria itself does not have enough drafters.
So last year, under my leadership, we were able to institutionalise internship programmes for legislative drafters and legal drafters, to fill the gap of that shortage.
The institute is currently running an internship. With the first batch commencing about four months ago, the first batch of 20 drafters has graduated with two of them retained by the Institute while the others were recommended to the Ministries of Justice, National Assembly and Houses of Assembly across the federation. The second batch of another 20 is now on course. There will be a third batch before the end of this year. The plan is to have three batches on a yearly basis. The institute remains the only institution in West Africa producing legal drafters for the continent. These are unique accomplishments in the last three years among others.
It is also worthy of mention that before I came on board, the enrollment into the Institute’s Master’s programme used to be within 40 to 60 but now we have 120 to 130 enrollment every year. We have graduated many students in parliamentary studies and election management.
We have also conducted a number of dialogue series such as the recently concluded session on, ‘2023 Census: Issues, challenges and prospects.’ We also hosted one for the elections as the Institute is mandated to monitor elections. Some staff monitored the Ekiti State Governorship election while preparations are ongoing for the Osun election and the 2023 general elections.
People had hoped that the FG would have implemented the Petroleum Industry Act after it was assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari but FG rather suspended its implementation for 18 months. Do you think it was a good decision by FG, given the humungous amount being spent on subsidy?
Some policies and decisions of government are driven by different factors, circumstances, environment, economic, social and national interests. That decision to shift to 18 months is political and you would not want to blame the federal government for doing that because it may have a lot of implications and the 2023 election is around the corner.
Businesses in Nigeria continue to groan. MAN said its members spent about N143.29 billion on alternative power supply between 2019 and 2020. In 2020 it spent N81.91 billion on the alternative power supply as against N61.38 spent in 2019. From March 2022 till date, the national grid had collapsed five times. Is this development not impeding FG’s industrialization drive in the country as well as stifling businesses, companies and individuals in Nigeria?
The epileptic power supply tends to defy all solutions and financials. But again, as long as the ruling class failed to take the right decisions, issues of economic growth and development, issues that border on poverty, unemployment, and survival of the Nigerian people, things may not improve. From what the price of fuel was in 2015 to what it is today, as long as we fail to address this issue with sincerity and holistically as a country, so shall we keep on wallowing in this kind of abject neglect. What you have said is known to a pupil in a primary school. When there is no power supply, you can not get anything done. When there is no power supply, you cannot fix infrastructure. When there is no power supply, small-scale entrepreneurs can not get anything done. When there is no power supply, the informal sector can not thrive and when the informal sector can not thrive, there can not be growth and development. It is a chain of networking. And that is why we are where we are today. As long as people reap from the importation of generators; as long as people believe that they are making money from the power sector, they are making money from the oil sector and they believe other people will go to blazes, it is a matter of days. We do not pray for that time! But I do not pray that my children will take arms against me. This is an issue that the more you raise it, the more saddened you become. I believe that there is a need for God’s intervention and that intervention will come very soon.
Insecurity is another major challenge to business and economic growth in the country. Are you not worried over the debilitating effect of this on our nation’s economy as well as on the business concerns of multinationals, corporations, companies and SMEs? What is the way out?
Mr President is worried. The National Assembly is worried. The State Assemblies are worried. The Governors are worried. The political class is worried. Business people are worried. Everybody is worried. Mr President has said on several occasions that insecurity has defied all solutions. That is why perhaps, I want to subscribe to people who said that before God’s intervention, we need human help. Within the confines of international relations, let other countries come to our aid and assist us. Our security sector keeps saying that they can locate where the bandits and kidnappers are and then they are helpless. People had to pay the ransom, people had to pay from their sweat to get their abductees released- where are we heading to? There is no doubt about it that our security agencies are overwhelmed. There is no doubt about it that the government has done the best it can do. We have gotten to the zenith of our capacity. I think, within the context of international relations, international cooperation and international politics, we lose nothing if we extend our hands of fellowship or we call for hands of the fellowship of other countries, those other countries that are more powerful than us, those countries that are ahead of us in technology, in the area of military capability to assist us. Enough is enough. The insecurity is having a negative implication on the entire gamut of Nigerian life, on our political and social lives. It is not about talking about the cause or dynamics, we have seen what happened, we have seen the dynamics, we have seen the implication, the question is the solution. And the solution, to me, is to seek the assistance or intervention of the major global powers to assist us in the areas of combating the menace of insecurity in this country.
Call it mercenaries, call it anything if nations seek other nations’ assistance in the area of social welfare, health-related and economic issues; when it comes to security too, we should go beyond asking for weapons and rather seek for other intelligence, other capacities, and other potentialities to assist us. I think that is part of the balance of power within the international community.
Can you be specific about the countries that you want Nigeria to call for assistance from?
The likes of the United Kingdom (UK), United States (US), Germany, Isreal and even South Africa here, are ahead of us in the areas of security, procurement and capacity. These are friendly nations to us. Even Canada and China. So what is wrong with seeking their assistance? We can not shy away from our lapses. We are a weak nation in that aspect. I am not saying the military is not doing their best but they are overwhelmed already and we observe that the adversaries, Boko haram, bandits and kidnappers are getting stronger by the day, then we should call for assistance from other nations.
But do you think that if actually there is political will and sincerity of purpose, our military can handle it?
I am not questioning the capacity of the Nigerian military but I am saying they are overwhelmed. How many times have soldiers been recruited? How many times have we procured more weapons? How many times have they gone for training? I think they are overwhelmed and if we do not see that political will coming, then we should go outside there and seek assistance.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Report May 2022 said Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 17.71 per cent on a year-on-year basis in May. What are the solutions?
Inflation has to do with using more money to buy fewer goods. And we keep on using more money to buy fewer goods. The same bottle of water you bought last year at the rate of N20, you are buying today at the rate of N300. That is inflation. As long as we do not produce, and we only consume; as long as the only thing we can do is import, it dwindles our foreign exchange earnings. Dolar remains constant. It is our currency that is depreciating because we spent money out and nobody spends money with us here. It has to do with our economic planning. It has to do with our economic policy. It has to do with what we put on either fiscal or monetary policy. How do we help out industries? How do we help our factories? How do we fix our infrastructure? How do we help our youths? How do we grow our agriculture? How do we make sure that people have access to their farms? How do we make certain incentives available to the younger ones to be on their own? It is a holistic sectoral matter which we need to look into. How do we look into the issue of electricity? As long as we can not produce anything on our own within the country, inflation will keep rising. Even tomatoes now, we have to import from the Niger Republic. We have the land here. Agrarian farming is there. We have very fertile land. Even fertilizer we have to import. These are issues. As long as we keep on importing, without exporting and we keep on spending on foreign products, there is no way we can limit the inflationary trends in the economy. I think it is the same sectoral crisis that we need to address. Much grammar will not help us. The reality is known to all of us. It is high time we addressed the reality and call a spade a spade.
International finance institutions have raised the alarm concerning the rising amount claimed to be spent on the subsidy of Petroleum Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol. While the International Monetary Fund warned that subsidy in Nigeria will hit N6 trillion by the end of 2020; the World Bank said it will reach N5trillion. What is the import on Nigeria of this humungous amount claimed to be spent on susbidy?
I am saddened by that question. I am saddened that today we will still be discussing petrol susbidy because I was part of the Government where that susbsidy was an issue. We thought by now we would not be subsiding petrol any longer. I am saddened by the fact that today the price of crude oil at the global market has gone up so high on account of the crisis between Ukraine and Russia and with the hope that Nigeria being one of the oil-producing countries, will benefit from that increase in the price of crude oil in the global market; but for the fact that we are unable to fix our refineries (among other things), we are not benefiting or maximising the windfall. Here we are today, what ordinarily would have been a benefit for us, we are not gaining. I am saddened by that. Whichever way you look at it, whether N5trn, N6tn or even N2trn, for an economy with great potentiality; for a country that is seen as the sixth largest global producer of oil, we should not be talking of subsidy. N6trn or whatever we are spending now ought to have been invested into social services, infrastructure development, education, security, and improving the welfare of the citizens of Nigeria. For every government, the first major objective is to promote the economic well-being of the citizenry. Unfortunately, we are unable to get there, no adequate planning, inability to implement social programmes, and invest in education, health system and housing for our people. What God has given us, in terms of resources, which are abundant; which in the 70s were referred to as manifest destiny has not been well managed, utilized and explored. With due respect to leadership, we have not done the right thing. When we talk of leadership, I blame myself, I blame those in the executive and those in the legislature, and I blame every one of us that has occupied one leadership position previously and currently. It is my hope that our younger upcoming generation will not rise against us one day and lead us to our early grave. I would not want to talk about the statistical aspect of it or the data. Whichever one the World Bank talked about, in terms of the project, in terms of what they envisage; the point remains that right now, as a country, we should not be talking about subsidy. We should not be subsiding petrol.
What is your advice to the Federal Government on how to address this situation?
It is not about advising the government. We must be serious as a country. The ruling class, I mean those in the commercial sector, those in the governing class and even the traditional rulers that are beneficiaries of most of this largesse, we must be serious as a nation and address this issue. There is no doubt about that. When you have a lot of saboteurs that preside over other sectors of the economy, there is little or nothing the governing class can do. That is why I prefer to use the word, ‘ruling class rather than the ‘governing class. The ruling class in terms of those who control the upper echelon of Nigerian society must get serious and holistically address this issue. I am saddened by the fact that a private citizen is now the one building the largest refinery in the whole world. It does not make sense for a country like Nigeria with all its solid, mineral and human resources. I do not know where we got it wrong but what we have done is that we are getting it wrong. To address this issue, we need to convoke a serious conference that will address most of these fundamental economic and political issues in Nigeria.
You raised an issue that why the price of crude oil is rising as a result of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Nigeria is not benefiting while other countries are benefiting. What is the way out?
When you export oil unrefined, it is economically unsound. The other country bought the crude and you purchase the refined product at a very exorbitant rate, it does not make any sense. As long as we do not refine oil within the country, we will continue to not benefit from the rise in crude oil prices on the international market. People that do not even have the oil are better off than us. The simple truth is that some syndicates, some cartels, and some people in this country would not want our refineries to be fixed. They are reaping from it, they are benefiting from it, and they are maximizing profit out of it. Until we are able to break that cartel and address those syndicates with determination beyond just legal framework or policy framework but with political willpower and determination, we can not as a country reap the benefits of the endowed resources.
When you do not refine, you are at the mercy of those countries that refine those products. And you keep on buying from them. So what stops us from getting our refineries fixed in the first instance? Are you saying we do not have the money to do it or we can not get the money to do it? Today the country is indebted to the tune of $40trillion. Where and how do you get out of here? So we are sitting on the keg of gunpowder and if care is not taken, and we allow it to explode, I would not know what will happen! That is why I take it to the ruling class, including myself. If we fail to address this issue, our children will not forgive us. The political economy of oil subsidy is known to even a pupil in primary school and why it is being prolonged is known to all of us. And why we have failed to address it is known to us and the implication is known to all of us. It is either we are able to take advantage of the resilience of the younger ones now by addressing it or we wait for the explosion any moment from now.
As the general elections of 2023 approach, there are apprehensions in the minds of foreign investors and indigenous business gurus. What is your advice to them?
Yes, the general elections are coming, we just had the Ekiti election and it was fair and rancour-free. I want to believe that with the new Electoral Act 2021, the internal crisis we are witnessing in the various political parties, and the emergence of new political parties that are waxing stronger, I think there is hope for this country in the 2023 elections.
With the emergence of the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (Atiku Abubakar); the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi; and the New Nigeria Peoples Party- Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, I believe in their capacity. I believe in their leadership. I believe in their skills. These are people with a high level of networking and contacts. I see them as globalists in their own respect. I see most of the emerging candidates as people who can effect a change, people who can leverage the gains we are having now. I see them as people who can take us to the next level so to speak. And if that is the case, if one believes in their personality, experience, networking, contacts and global outlook, the international community, and the investors should not be disturbed, scared or frightened about post-2023 Nigeria.
Since 2018, Nigeria has been ranked the poverty capital of the world. According to data from the World Poverty Clock, Nigeria now has over 87 million people living in poverty. This is in spite of the incredible human and material resources of the nation. Is this not a sad development? What is the way out?
We need to look at our base, the productive level. As long as we are only consuming and we are not producing, the poverty level will keep increasing. We will not be gathering foreign exchange and we will not be making revenue. As we keep on importing, we keep on borrowing from other nations to survive, we keep on looking to other nations to survive, and we will continue to wallow in poverty. As long as we abandon labour or workers as the pivot of productivity, we can not get anywhere. Most of the expenditures are just to pay salaries and for consumption and are not geared toward production or infrastructure. We spend less of our annual budget on capital and more on personnel. As long as that is the nature of our economy, we can not get anywhere. We are thriving in poverty, and we are increasing the poverty level.
We need to really look at industrialisation. How do we get our productive sector moving? How do we see people/labour as pivotal to development? How do we get our youths energised into the productive sector? These graduates who are coming out from the universities and other higher institutions, how do we get them into the economic sector? That should be our priority. As long as we neglect productivity and we do not see the relevance of manpower in us, the potential in our young ones, the potential in our workers, the potential in our labour; as long as we do not channel that labour into the productive level, we can not address the issue of poverty.
In 2022, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to reach 33 per cent. This figure was projected at 32.5 per cent in the preceding year. Chronological data show that the unemployment rate in Nigeria rose constantly in the past years. In the fourth quarter of 2020, over 33 per cent of the labour force was unemployed, according to the Nigerian methodology. How do we tackle this monster?
When you have unemployment, you are breeding poverty. And when you are breeding poverty and people are not working, they can not take care of themselves. That may have implications for social security. It is a straight chain. It is a network. One crisis leads to another crisis. We address unemployment through policy framework and through political will. Our annual budget, what are they meant for? What are we planning for? We have a lot of abandoned beautiful plans. What are we doing in the area of infrastructure? How do we address the issue of electricity? How do we address power generation? How do we address insecurity? Until we are able to take all these sectoral challenges, one by one, we are not heading on the progressive side. You can not create jobs when there is no power. That cobbler, that carpenter, that bricklayer, and the vulcanizers need the power to work. When things are at the level they are now, there is nothing you can do. When diesel is being sold as it is sold now, how do we power factories and other companies we have? So these are issues. We have the issue of insecurity, people can no longer go to the farm. We have to take all these challenges one after the other. As long as we abandon them and do not want to address them, it is a thing of crisis. It is a network. It is systemic! One that leads from one system to another. So we must address the issue of power, we must address the issue of insecurity, we must address the issue of infrastructure. We must come out on clear terms. But above all, there must be that willingness on the side of the ruling class to address the problems of this country. Transformation requires a holistic view of where we are; It requires a holistic blueprint of where we are going and determination on the part of every one of us to say, ‘yes-we is set to address this issue.’ We must come up with a vision to address these challenges. As long as we are at the level of followers, the level of the political class, and the level of the ruling class, we are paying lip service to all these. It is a crisis that very soon might overwhelm us and I wonder how we are going to address them. It is getting too late. We know where the problems are and until we are ready to handle them as a nation, I do not think we can get anywhere.
For some years now, Nigeria has not conducted a census, not knowing our populations and the demographic parameters, is it good for this country? Is it not affecting us in the area of planning?
It is not good for this country. Normally we are supposed to conduct a census every ten years in line with the United Nations recommendation. The last time we had a census was in 2006. When you do not conduct a census, you do not know how many you are and you can not plan for your country. You can not plan for education, youth, health and other things. Every nation must know how many they are in terms of population and in terms of shelter. When you do not have it, you do not know how many shelter and infrastructure to make available for your country.
But one of the issues is that as long as there is no law, adhering to the United Nation’s recommendation may be difficult. It is one thing for the United Nation to say that each nation must have a census every ten years and another thing for each nation to domesticate it. Every country must domesticate the UN prescription with a law.
Not having a census is not a good thing. We need to look at it. But there are challenges to conducting a census now. How do you access the nooks and crannies of the northern part of the country? How do we access the nooks and crannies in some parts of the country where security challenges are rearing their ugly heads? What about the issue of infrastructure? What about the issue of electricity? There are a lot of things we have to look at and do. Funding perhaps is another challenge. Yes, funding for the census should not come from the federal Government alone. By UN standard, it is donor agencies 50 per cent, the home government 50 per cent. But again, do we have the requirements that may come from the federal government? These are issues that we need to look into. Though they said they are going to digitalise the census process this year, how are they going to do it?