Dis Guy:

Abegi those countries bought new equipment but WE the giant of Africa, We are going to INVENT ours in German Research Centers with World class researchers from China, Russia, Israel and the western world.

You have to appreciate the fact that counting people has never been done before in sub-saharan Africa- The Commander in Chief will be the honorary first individual to be 'counted' in this country with his amiable wife Dame Ebele Jonathan in the Waterside Country home in Otupke* where the international media will grace the epoch making event- they might even call some international raggae stars to attend at various region of the country to promote this census

it will be record breaking i tell ya!!

_{pass me the bucket}

Obiagelli:
Am sorry o.

It is assumed that Congo’s population is 67.8 million, that there is a 2.6% growth rate and an urban population of 35%. But these figures published by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) are ‘guesstimates’. The last population census in DRC dates back to 1984 so no one really knows.

A major obstacle to free and fair elections is the absence of reliable demographic data. According to demographer Léon de Saint Moulin, Kinshasa’s population was 9.7 million in 2010 whereas the CIA World Factbook placed it at 8.4 million (2011). When it comes to voter registration and constituency forming in a hotly contested arena like that of Kinshasa, this discrepancy is not trivial.

Census data is by its very nature sensitive: how many people live under a roof, age, sex, level of education, in some cases biometric information, etc. A reliable census is consequently based on trust. There is no guarantee that the necessary degree of trust between government and citizen currently exists in Congo to gather such comprehensive data.

The cost of a census in DRC is estimated at $173 million.

Promhize:
If it was possible, I would creep into my phone and creep out of some people's device and shoot them in the dead
Listen to this dude

Ngwakwe: Am impressed by your reply and I apologise for any adjective I used that may have offended you.

Peace

eGuerrilla: Is anyone still prepared to advance invidious arguments, to justify the improbable figure quoted in @OP's article, at this point?

eGuerrilla: Is anyone still prepared to advance invidious arguments, to justify the improbable figure quoted in @OP's article, at this point?

Ngwakwe: It's just a proposal that must be presented to both the NASS and Senate for deliberations and consequent approval.

I believe they will do justice to this proposal and never to rubber-stamp it without proper breakdown and defence for such an outrageous sum.

Kanwulia: JonaDunce can always borrow from world-Bank ke!
If I call tribe na, some ijjiots will call their MAMA-NAMAS 'a bigot'!
Na so dem dey behave.

600 billion to show in transportation and healthcare, who needs INEC?

Who gave a HUNGRY, BIA****** REFUGEE-CORPSE this office?

JONADUNCE of course!!!! The BIA****** QUARTER-BRED!!!!!

Ngwakwe: Am impressed by your reply and I apologise for any adjective I used that may have offended you.

Peace

seanet02: East man wants to use 600 billion for census.
Jaguda baba ole

Promhize:
as if they want to count dead Nigerians in heaven and hell

Promhize:
as if they want to count dead Nigerians in heaven and hell

Ngwakwe: It's just a proposal that must be presented to both the NASS and Senate for deliberations and consequent approval.

I believe they will do justice to this proposal and never to rubber-stamp it without proper breakdown and defence for such an outrageous sum.

omenka: Oh God! Please come down and help us!

Promhize: AUTHOR: JIDE OSUNTOKUN

The chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Festus Odimegwu said recently that he would need N600 billion to conduct the next census. This is at a time when the Federal Government through its act of omission or commission has shut down all state and federal universities in the country because it cannot find N87 billion being demanded by the teachers. It would not surprise me if this same Federal Government finds N600 billion to give to the census body when you cannot ride on any Nigerian road without running into huge craters and gutters. At the end of each census, we come up with spurious numbers that are not believed by anybody or believable at all. What is apparent in Nigeria is not always real, it is the case of the more you see, the less it counts. At election times, small states produce more votes than states that are much bigger and much more populous if only to get their preferred candidate elected.

Apart from the census of 1956 which put Nigeria’s population at 32 million, all other censuses have been marred by forgeries. During enumeration of people, it is not uncommon for villages to contribute money to give to enumerators in order to boost their population figures and yet we call this a census. Enumeration of any kind in Nigeria is totally without integrity. When states are asked to come up with the number of school aged children, the figures given sometimes outstrip the population of the entire state. Any exercise requiring figures in Nigeria is usually manipulated because of the financial implications of figures in Nigeria. Would it not be better to save N600 billion and just get statisticians to give us projected population of Nigeria based on a baseline of 1952 and rate of increase at 3% per year or something of that sort rather than the spurious figures bandied around dishonestly by NPC?

Nobody can swear on the figures of Nigeria’s population. Today, we are told that we are about 170 million but I do not believe it. I personally do not believe that Nigeria is more than 100 million; the remaining 70 million are ghosts as far as I am concerned. The idea of population count every 10 years should be jettisoned and replaced by population count every two decades. The money saved should be used for development of infrastructure of the country. Imagine what N600 billion can do in the development of Nigeria. Odimegwu and his NPC should be asked to go on holidays and come back 20 years after the last census and give us the chance to use the money saved to develop the country. Census is about people and about development. Arbitrary figures are of no importance whatsoever to the development of Nigeria and if we need to take the next census, we should do it scientifically by calling in experts from the UN to do area mapping of Nigeria and to point out the centres of concentration of people through settlement pattern and then project the overall population of our country. This can be done through area photography without the arduous, primitive enumeration and money guzzling system Nigeria revels in.

We know that elections are around the corner and people are looking for money for election, but we can’t be fooled all the time. The figure of N600 billion for counting Nigerians, many of whom are poor, despairing and despondent such that they would take the money rather than being counted, if given the option is outrageous. There are so many outlandish things going on at the centre in Abuja; recently, the Nigerian Space Authority or something of that sort says it is planning to send Nigerian astronauts into space by 2020. When I read this in the paper, I just laughed that what a country! And I asked myself – how is that important to the ordinary men and even to men who are not ordinary? What direct benefit will sending an astronaut into space bring to Nigeria? Are we going to reinvent the wheel?

Countries that are sending people into space are already developed and have the basic requirement of decent living for their people. Why would a country whose people still defecate in the bushes or in open space and whose people have no potable water to drink or electricity to light their homes and power their businesses, decent educational and health facilities, efficient transportation system be planning to engage in the expensive venture of space exploration when the Russians and the Americans, the two leading nations in this area are deemphasising state participation while encouraging the private sector to take over these expensive ventures?

We make fools of ourselves by pretending to be a big power when in fact we are not. We should cut our coat according to our cloth and face the reality of underdevelopment and try to overcome it. This is the challenge we face, the challenge of husbanding our resources and embarking on rapid development, transformation and industrialising our country while we still have the resources accruing from hydro-carbon exploitation. Our mono-cultural economy cannot be sustained forever and in fact cannot be sustained for too long, we have only about 30 years to transform this economy or die. Future generations of Nigeria will not forgive us if we do not embark on the process of transformation right now. Unfortunately, there is too much politicking in the land, too much talk about election in 2015 when in fact nobody knows who would be around tomorrow. We need to do the first thing first, let those who are in government right now discharge their responsibilities to the electorate, fulfil the promises on which they were elected and let the future take care of itself. Nigerians are a long-suffering people and I admire them for that and there is even wisdom in being long-suffering because revolutions do not always pan out. It is better to be long-suffering and to hope for evolutionary changes rather than wish or engineer sudden changes. But sometimes herd instincts and mob mentality can push a people to the edge of a precipice when they feel that the situation is hopeless. We are getting to this point in Nigeria where the more we spend on power generation, the less power we get. For the past 14 years, power generation in Nigeria has not increased past 4000 megawatts and yet, billions of dollars have been spent on this sector without any appreciable change in our power generation situation. Electricity generation is not rocket science, other third world countries and indeed other African countries like our neighbour Ghana have managed to stabilise their power sector to the extent that generators are not as everywhere in Ghana as they are in Nigeria. Would it not be wonderful if the present regime can tell us categorically when every home in Nigeria will have power 24 hours n for granted in most countries of the world even in countries where the frigid weather should militate against this. If we have a government that can guarantee regular supply of water and electricity, then we woulding out of the stone-age in which we have been consigned by previous administrations. The needs of Nigerians are not many and not outrageous or outlandish. What we require are basic needs for decent human living and we hope and pray that one day, a government would come that would be able to deliver on this simple needs rather than giving us outrageous budgetary figures on space exploration and demographic enumeration.

http://www.nigeriaintel.com/2013/09/05/n600-billion-census-budget-outrageous/


Personally, we cannot continue like this. FG's biting more than can chew o, all this one that Atiku, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Maku, are playing politics, thinking and acting like they own Nigeria.
I'm not Hausa but Walahi, Nigeria will be worse than Egypt and Tunisia.

Sam xiu lee: The arguments for census, is majorly how to plan,budget on resources,if each states control their resources,let each of them conduct census themselves,if any states wants to count cow let them count it with their money and their resources.Fiscal federalism.

Dis Guy:

Abegi those countries bought new equipment but WE the giant of Africa, We are going to INVENT ours in German Research Centers with World class researchers from China, Russia, Israel and the western world.

You have to appreciate the fact that counting people has never been done before in sub-saharan Africa; In fact research from Nsukka has shown that western countries dont get it right-they guess! The Commander in Chief will be the honorary first individual to be 'counted' in this country with his amiable wife Dame Ebele Jonathan in the Waterside Country home in Otupke* where the international media will grace the epoch making event- they might even call some international raggae stars to attend at various region of the country to promote this census

it will be record breaking i tell ya!!

In some countries will come and learn from us

_{pass me the bucket}