Why South-East must participate in next National Census – Eke

Emma Trumps Eke, commissioner, representing Abia State in the National Population Commission (NPC), in this interview, affirmed the readiness of NPC to conduct credible census. He also stated why the South-East Zone of Nigeria must take national census seriously, and why President Bola Tinubu is on the right track in Nigeria’s economic revival. He spoke with GODFREY OFURUM in Umuahia. Excerpts:

Nigeria’s last Census was in 2006; does this show that NPC can’t conduct Census on a regular basis?

The National Population Commission has everything it takes to conduct a credible, fair, and undisputed census in Nigeria. Yes, the last census was in 2006. There could have been a census in 2023, but because of the transition from Buhari’s administration to the current administration, it was postponed. I want you to also understand that conducting a census is capital intensive. Everyone in Nigeria knows that before this administration came into power, there were lots of burning issues, which they considered primary to tackle before they can talk about census and that’s the right thing to do. Given the capital intensive nature of conducting census, you can understand why there’s not much talk about census for now.

But I don’t think it’ll take so long for us to have a census between next year or after the elections.

Birth and death registration is a core mandate of NPC, why does it seem challenging?

Yes, it’s one of the core mandates of NPC. You will agree with me that there’s this low level of literacy, especially in the rural areas, where you hear some people saying they don’t want their children counted and do not want registration to take place. It’s also unfortunate that in most of those rural areas there are no functional maternity or health centres, where such registration can be done immediately. However, our field workers and registrars are deployed all over the Local Government Areas, including those much affected rural areas, to do what is needed.

We’ve always been pleading with the traditional rulers, President Generals and Development Unions to assist us. When the ad-hoc staff come around, they should volunteer the information, where birth had occurred outside the maternity and health centres so that those children can be captured and certificate issued. Children from Day-1 to 17 years old are registered free.

Our people need to understand that children that are within and below 17 years are registered freely, by NPC. From 18 years and above, have a stipend they pay. However, the most important thing is that this information has to trickle down.

Are there challenges affecting the registration exercises?

It is not direct, but there has to be cooperation from the State Government down to the Local Government Chief Executives, to see the reason we need to form synergy to achieve a common goal without looking at politics. For instance, the government at the centre is the All Progressives Congress (APC), while the Labour Party (LP) is handling the affairs of the state here. Therefore, there’s a need for the Labour Party not to see the NPC project as a contestation between LP and APC.
That cooperation, synergy and symbiotic relationship between Federal Agencies and State Governments is needed. If the state can instruct the mayors at the Local Government to see most of what I’m talking about, as a responsibility and not politics, we will make headway and the State will not be short-changed.

What are the benefits of birth, death registration and census?

There are lots of important benefits. For instance, if the Federal Government is going to build a health facility for children, based on the number of children that are registered at a particular state, or if there’s help to come from our international partners, like the World Health Organisation (WHO), or World Bank to the states, based on numbers, we’ll be short changing ourselves, if that bipartisan relationship is not there.

That’s why we are pleading with them for support to have this done properly. So, we have all it takes to do, either death or birth registration. Another problem is that people don’t report death. We expect them to report so that certificates can be issued. If we don’t have the various age strata, it doesn’t help to plan. These are important for effective planning. Whether it’s for siting industries, building schools or any intervention by government.

What is your message to the people of the South-East concerning future census in Nigeria?

If you go by 2006 census, they put Abia on about 3 million. But between you and me, you know that if you stay at Ngwa Road By Ohanku Road in Aba, and count people moving around that area of Aba, you’ll see that they’re over 10 million people residing in that area alone. Even if you go from house to house to generate data, because what we do is National Population and Housing Census, you’ll know that from Ngwa Road towards Ohanku Road, Aba and its axis, you’ll get over 3 million people residing there. Now, how did they come by the population figures they gave to Abia in 2006? The answer is because we short-changed ourselves for obvious reasons.

I’ve always said it. We’re all Igbo people. Today, we get federal allocation from Nigeria; we have a Nigerian passport. We’ll be deceiving ourselves, thinking there’s another country for us other than Nigeria. So, this has to be understood. So whatever anybody wants to do, whatever anybody is expecting, we’re Nigerians and we’re getting allocations from the Federal Government of Nigeria, based on our population as one criterion.

If you cast your mind back to 2006, when Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) told our people that we are not part of this country, that nobody should count people here. Fast forward from 2006 to 2025, you’ll see that we are still where we are.

We have to stopped shooting ourselves in the leg. We have to make do with what we have. Nigeria is our country and we don’t have any other one. On that basis, people need to understand that census is primary. If they want to create a new Local Government today, the population is important.

If you want to create new political wards, it’ll still be based on our population. That alone calls for concern that traditional rulers, state actors and non-state actors need to come together, so that we can use what we have to get what we want.

What’s your call to avert the current situation?

It’s simple. All organisations, faith-based, traditional institutions and others have huge roles to play. The State Government has more roles more than what they think the NPC have to play, because they are the major actors here.

For them to have more revenue coming to them, accurate figures are necessary. Whether it’s in terms of allocation of resources, or in terms of deployment of government facilities and infrastructure. We understand that they’re doing it for human beings, and planning and segmentation becomes necessary when the data is available.

The NPC, on its own, has roles to play, because the message needs to trickle down to the lowest places to make them understand that we have no other country except Nigeria.
We’ve seen a situation where a high level of ignorance and unnecessary suspicion made people here during our E-Birth Registration, refuse being part of any form of registration at all.

To provide information like their National Identity Number (NIN), for any form of registration calls for unnecessary delay and refusal despite many explanations you give to them, the ignorance is there.

Honestly, we need a lot of publicity here and media activities to educate our people. For instance, today, they even don’t cooperate with NPC most times in E-Birth Registration that helps us to gather data, and have them in the National Data Bank. We experience this type of things here.

As an NPC member, you know that Nigeria’s population is growing; what do you think President Tinubu has done in that regard?

I want to commend the President for his boldness. For the first time since 1999, no President tried some of the foundational restructuring we are currently experiencing in this administration.

It takes a man with a great heart, like President Bola Tinubu, to come into power and fight the system that had held this country down. President Tinubu came and took the bull by the horns. He removed oil subsidy, floated the Naira so that we can know the real value, instead of using it to fix the rate without the market forces determining the price.

The money that has been recovered from fuel subsidy is what the State Governments are enjoying today, because they’re currently getting five times of what they were previously getting. Go to the Local Government Areas and see how their allocations have improved tremendously.

When you hear that our people are suffering, one who is well informed in issues of economy and finance will ask, what are the State Governments doing with the amount of money available to them right now?

But many Nigerians are saying they can’t see any positive thing in subsidy removal?

Let me explain something clearly to you. It’s time for our people to juxtapose what their states are doing with the amount they’re receiving. Therefore, the citizens don’t need to be relaxed without asking questions and watch if their states are indirectly tricking them to push blame where it shouldn’t go.
The time for campaign has not come, but when it’s time, we’ll bring out our statistics all over the states, not just Abia, for people to see what this President enabled their states to earn and what their government did with such monies. The President has been doing a great job, and he needs these governors to complement that in their various states with the money available.

You claim that the President is doing a great job, what are these great jobs that most Nigerians don’t know about?

I can’t say that most Nigerians don’t know, but it’s important I explain for those who don’t know and also for those that know and don’t want others to know, so that they’ll know that their line of argument is defeated. Let me give you another example, when he came in, he inherited over ₦30 trillion debt owed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in “ways and means” which is a loan facility, through which the CBN provides short-term financing to cover Federal Government’s budget shortfalls. In less than three years, that money has been paid fully. How did he do that? He removed subsidy. Many people are asking what is he doing with the funds coming from subsidy removal?. There’s also this legacy debt owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before he came in. Today, Tinubu has cleared the $1.61 billion debt to the IMF, which has removed Nigeria from the fund’s list of indebted countries. The international airlines (European Airlines) were on the verge of stop flying into Nigeria, because of a debt of over $850 million owed them. Today, Tinubu has cleared that outstanding debt owed to European Airlines. Between 1960 and now, there was no effort to give Nigerian students a loan. But now, students that apply can get a loan to ease the burden on parents.

By January, you’ll see the tax reform that has never taken place before. It’s a reform that some sections of the country kicked against until the President said no. There are four bills he has signed into law that will help create a fairer and more efficient tax system across the country. There’s the Nigeria Tax Bill (Ease of Doing Business), which aims to merge Nigeria’s fragmented tax laws into a harmonised statute.

There’s also the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, which will establish a uniform legal and operational framework for tax administration across Federal, State, and LGAs. There’s the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, which, as we heard, will remove the current Federal Inland Revenue Service Act, to create a more autonomous and efficient national revenue agency — the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS). I believe the fourth is the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill, which provides for a formal governance structure to facilitate cooperation between revenue authorities at all levels of government.

These are some of the foundational restructuring that are taking place in the economy. So, if anybody tells you that President Bola Tinubu is not working, make him understand all these and also that before this government took over that Nigeria had around $30 billion in foreign reserve, but today, we’re talking about Nigeria’s foreign exchange (FX) reserves expected to rise to about $41billion, by year-end. Economic effects go by stages. By the second quarter of next year, people will start feeling all these positive impacts at the micro level.
The reason is that every economic policy passes through a gestation period, because it becomes fully seen. At the macro level, IMF is saying that at the rate Nigeria is going, that the economy of Nigeria will outpace that of the US and UK soon. This is a sign that we are making progress. Some will tell you about inflation, but I urge you to call your brothers outside Nigeria.
You’ll discover that every other country is facing inflationary trends as well. We in Nigeria don’t seem to feel like changes are on, because we don’t have a functional system here.
But before December 2026, you’ll see a lot of transformation, especially from the health sector, where Nigeria will produce the majority of its drugs, not this one we are bringing in many junks from different countries. There’s systematic institutional restructuring at the Ministry of Health that will usher changes.

What can you tell the people of the South-East about what Tinubu has done in the region so far?

The South-East Development Commission (SEDC) that was signed into law by the President was what they promised to our people in 1970 after the war. You recall the 3Rs that were promised for the region after that war. Nobody went after it again until now that we now have a Development Commission, signed into law and pioneered by Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Bill came up in the 8th Assembly and the then President refused to sign it. It came up again in the 9th assembly. He also refused to sign it. Benjamin Kalu resurrected the bill in the 10th assembly and his colleagues supported him and that bill was signed into law, by the President.

The signing of that bill for the South-East Development Commission has given birth to all these other regional development commissions you hear of. Now, we say kudos to Benjamin Kalu. However, what this means is that outside the federal allocation coming to States, there’s also more Federal money coming in for regional development.

The President wants each region to develop at its own pace. The beauty of the whole thing is that after the inauguration of the South-East Development Commission, the Commission has moved further to get South-East Investment Company, which will be the hub of the industrialization of South-East. With the first expected capital of ₦150 billion into that place.

What it means is that the South-East will leverage on their people, who are international business owners, who are outside, and multinational business organisations to come in and invest here. Some Chinese are already showing interest in coming and do monorail here in the South-East.

Think of a monorail covering the entire South-East and see how commerce will flourish here. A lot of good things will come in that in the next five years, you’ll see a different South-East, courtesy of President Tinubu.

How do you see Benjamin Kalu political progression. Do you see him as an emerging political leader in South-East?

Of course, he is. Look at the position he occupies and what he’s doing with it. Right from the 9th assembly when he first came into the National Assembly, the level of infrastructural development that came into Bende, has not happened before. No House of Reps member, including the person he took over from that spent 12 years, there could construct one road in Bende.

In the 9th Assembly, he attracted the Nkpa-Erosion Ecological Challenge Project that gave us over a 9 kilometre road, with two bridges and a culvert totalling over ₦1.3 billion and the biggest Federal Project in Bende. Before that, anybody coming to Nkpa usually park their vehicles at the former leprosy colony and look for Okada to take them home. In his first term, every community had classroom blocks either newly built or renovated, plus a health centre. Before him, our people never knew that something can come from the House of Representatives.

In this 10th Assembly, he already has over 100 bills to his name. He doesn’t have an equal. The South-East Development Commission is his baby.

Just recently, two Federal tertiary institutions were approved in his constituency, by the President. It has never happened before. It has never happened before that in one legislative year, a sitting President will give assent to two tertiary institutions to a particular constituency.

You can’t talk about international parliamentary moves in Nigeria today without mentioning his name. He has been marketing Nigeria properly and has even done more than foreign affairs ministry in marketing Nigeria.

Everywhere he goes, he is marketing Nigeria and telling them why they should come here to invest.

He advertises Nigeria with bold marketing skills and clear strength of what our country represents. He’s one man you can’t hear anybody tell you he’s selfish. As we speak, that office has given over 250 people. jobs at the federal level. I’m not talking about legislative aides here, because he has another 150 people, as legislative aides coming from all over the country.

He helps people to get into the boards. I am here today, because of him. There are so many other people, who are not even from Abia that are beneficiaries of his magnanimous deed. The man is bright that even if you don’t like him, you’ll always love his works. When a man is on his divine assignment, you can’t stop him.