₦airaland Forum

Cajetan speaks: Since you said I don't know anything about statisticians' job. I will like you to enumerate these duties, lets dissect them individually. And mind you, the Statistician General of Nigeria and all his special advicers studied economics.

yes, the stat-general in nigeria read economics. Have u bothered to find out if he did a postgraduate degree in statistics? Stat-gen is a political appointment mind u.

Cajetan speaks: @Zebra, the bitter truth ias that economists and financial analysts are better statisticians. Visit any national statistical office including USA and our national bureau of statistics you will discover that the top players there are economists.

simply because economists and others work in bureau of statistics does not make them statisticians my friend. They have other roles to play there. Even econometricians who also do economic analyses can never be called statisticians or do better than statisticians in economic surveys and analyses talk less of economists. FYI i did my IT with the NBS (then FOS) and we had economists, accountants and all that who were also working there but not in the capacity of statisticians. U really don't know who statisticians are or what they do. Why are u displaying so much ignorance on this forum? Use ur google my man, it's not just there for fun. Even in the US and UK Statisticians are distinguished people with all sectors hiring them and paying them well. One of the billionaires in the making today in the US is a statistician. His name is Dennis Gillings. He owns a medical research centre and has helped develop so many areas in medicine. Can ur economists and fin analysts and engineers attempt that? I guess u ve very little knowledge about statistics. Like i said use ur internet and google to learn about things u don't know well, and not just spewing thrash on nairaland.

Cajetan speaks: @Zebra, the bitter truth ias that economists and financial analysts are better statisticians. Visit any national statistical office including USA and our national bureau of statistics you will discover that the top players there are economists.

simply because economists and others work in bureau of statistics does not make them statisticians my friend. Even econometricians can never be called statisticians talk less of economists. U really don't know who statisticians are or what they do. Why are u displaying so much ignorance on this forum? Use ur google my man, it's not just there for fun. Even in the US and UK Statisticians are distinguished people with all sectors hiring them.

Numero uuuno: ok, thankss for your opinion.

welcome! Where are u based? If u're in a town where there is a university offering postgraduate programs, then the postgraduate students are ur potential clients. But u really need to know a lot about other disciplines to be able to cope especially finance, management, economics, sociology, pol science, biological sciences, etc. For the social sciences like sociology and pol science, u would be doing more of analyzing questionnaires, whìle for finance and management u would be doing more of modeling. For the biological sciences u would be doing modeling and experimental designs. Just be focus and learn how to analyze all kinds of data, with time ur clients would be marketing companies, R and D departments of major industries, QC departments of industries, and even government ministries. U can be self-employed as a good statistician. One other thing, if u're very good in those stats packages u mentioned, u could also be a trainer, training others that want to learn. U could also train statistical staff of government ministries. The sky is ur starting point.

Numero uuuno: Hello guys,pls what Statistical applications and packages do a statistician to be needs to be familiar with?
i already know,R,S+,SPSS
I need this becos i want to develop myself for the job market(in the future),thankss.

You are on course my brother. R, S-PLUS, and SPSS are good stats packages. Don't just be familiar with them, work with them. Do analysis with them and interpret outputs. U can keep urself busy by working freelance for little or no pay helping people to do data analysis in their research works. That's how most of us started. Good luck!

@ cajetan speaks: it means you're very ignorant about the skills and work of statisticians. Be honest with urself, can an economist, financial analyst or engineer provide any support in medical and pharmaceutical experiments and researches? Such research and experimental team must include a Statistician. Try and find out what statisticians really do. I just gave u one out of numerous places that statisticians are needed that other professionals with math skills can't fit in.

Numero uuuno: Hello sir,what are you talking about?
i cant understand the points you are driving at?
Pls clarify cos i did not mention pharmaceutical,economist,engineer and medical in ♍Ɣ post,thankss.

meant for @cajetan speaks

[quote author=Numero uuuno][/quote]you're very ignorant about the skills and work of statisticians. Be honest with urself, can an economist, financial analyst or engineer provide any support in medical and pharmaceutical experiments and researches? Just one out of many. Try and find out what statisticians really do.

[quote author=Numero uuuno][/quote]you're very ignorant about the skills and work of statisticians. Can an economist or engineer provide any support in medical and pharmaceutical experiments and researches? Try and find out what statisticians really do.

I'll advice u if u're still studying to take courses in advanced statistics and ops research with statistics students. If u've graduated do ur Msc in stats.This will help prepare u to work on ur own as a statistician and operations analyst. U can be a statistical consultant to researchers and other R&D dept of mega companies. There are lots of things u can do as a statistician. Statistics solve real life problems. That is where mathematical methods are put into use. People do research work daily and require statisticians to work with them in the areas of questionnaire design, sampling, data collection, data analysis and modeling. Just be very skillful in statistical methods and statistical computing and see how researchers would be chasing after u. They need ur services as a professional who can help them handle the data part of their research. Studying mathematics can never be a waste of time bro! I also studied mathematics & statistics, and currently work for myself as a consultant statistician. Please take my piece of advice.

I watched and listened to kaakaki this morning; i don't know if u did. I disagreed with what Hon. Simon Wadkon and Dr. Isah Fagge said about Asian countries being developed as a result of investing much in university education. We all know that Asian countries developed as a result of paying attention to/ investing so much in technical and technological education, and less emphasis on university education. Do u agree with my view or u agree with them?

[quote author=miniziter][/quote]That's the problem, mere assumption. No emperical or statistical evidence to prove that uni graduates learnt or are performing better than poly graduates in the same or related field.

all4naija: There is need for a body to be set up for collation of information in that country. How will a nation progress without good statistic?

That's my point. Other countries rely on statistics to plan and make valid decisions, while nigeria blindly take decisions and expect things to work.

In engineering for example, universities do engineering science while the polytechnics focus on engineering technology. This does not mean that one is superior to the other, rather they complement each other. But in nigeria the engineering technology graduate is looked down at.

Universities are centers for general research and theoretical knowledge, while polytechnics are centers for technological research and applied knowledge.

Giving the task of statistics to the private sector could change things and help reduce corruption.

i looked for data from them last year and could not get what i wanted. I had to go CBN  and nnpc to get it. I also have worked with them as an IT student so i can tell u about all the data cooking and nonsense they do there.

We need to have a good statistical system to able to tackle fraud in nigeria.

No country is totally free from corruption. The level of corruption is minimal in some coumtries like singapore while in others it is at the maximum level, like nigeria. If corruption can be reduced it means we will be able to keep reliable records to some extent.

@eGuerrilla. It is true. Even the private sector dont keep proper records so that they can easily commit fraud and get away with it without being noticed. Corruption is just it. It's sad my brother.

I really believe this attitude of ignoring statistics is a political thing. That is why like i said b4, the qualified man power is not there and govt dont pump in enof funds for them to utilize. Maintaining a good statistical system is actually very expensive.

@muyoto. I believe statistics is ignored for political reasons. But it all boils down to them commiting fraud with out any evidence to disprove them.

@eGuerrilla. They have refused for no other reason than to perpetrate fraud without leaving any evidence that can be used to track their frauds. Typical example is the approximate quantity of daily pms consumption and total pms imported into the country in 2011 which even the petroleum minister could not tell nigerians. Just like accounting & auditing, taking & keeping proper statistics as well as proper application of statistical methods/techniques can also help to some extent to uncover fraud in any system if properly applied.

@efisher. Thanx for ur contribution. Until we get a good statistical system in nigeria that will involve the use of GIS technology and the physical or direct methods of data collection (in areas like finance and petroleum it must be physical/direct) there will always be fraud in nigeria. We should have statisticians and economists that can build very robust models that can be used to describe economic growth and forecast future demand/sales or income with minimum standard errors. With such models they will be able to keep track of activities in most vital sectors of the economy, and this will reduce fraud significantly.

@Nugwax that's exactly my problem with NBS, senseless and illogical figures which were cooked and fabricated by them. They dont get to carry out surveys as expected cos of lack of qualified man power and inadequate funds. The statistical system needs overhauling as well as having offices in each LGA headquarters in nigeria. Govt should also employ more qualified statisticians to collect and process data efficiently and on time . Also heard that the stat-gen of nigeria is an economist and not a trained statistician. It's funny.

We have a lot of maths, stats, comp sc, and econs graduates without jobs. Why cant govt employ them to help in data collection and processing in all local govt and sectors? It may be very expensive but it will help govt a lot.

We have a faulty statistical system in nigeria which i feel is responsible for improper planning and allocation of resources, non development of the country, and massive fraud. Can u believe that we don't have statistics dept or offices in our 774 or so local govt areas in nigeria. U can also find out for urself too.

That was how it started in 1966 and finally the war started in 1967 to 1970 with millions of igbos killed. From what i know igbos are not united, meaning there are Judas among them.  Look carefully before u leap. Ojukwu too was very prepared technologically, economically and otherwise in 1966, but how did it end? When jungle mature Gen Red Devil will flee to ivory coast and leave u.

She needs to be suspended and placed under house arrest like zakari Biu to give way for proper investigation on the fraud in her ministry. The same woman that publicly told nigerians even at the town hall debate that govt spent N1.3trillion on petrol subsidy in 2011 alone, now changing mouth again to tell us that subsidy for Kerosine from 2008 was part of the N1.3trillion. Very soon she will also say that AGO subsidy is part of the N1.3tril. Look, Diezani is the problem of nigeria and not the cabals she has been pointing fingers at. She is a fraud and a big liar.

Is there any university in the north apart from ABU, uni ilorin and UDU that runs Msc statistics program?

Let dem also not forget to remove the "force" in nigerian air force and nigerian armed force(s). Mumu people. Dem no really get work to do, abi na misplaced priority? Awon olodi ni gbogbo won.