CENSUS 2006: Get counted where you are

Governor Bola Tinubu warned Lagos residents, irrespective of their states of origin, not to travel to their home states for the census, threatening that those who do so �will be made to pay special fee for all their needs when they return to Lagos.�
His argument is that those who live, work and make a living in Lagos should not turn their back on the state to be counted to determine what Lagos deserves from the federal purse to cope with its population�s needs.
Governor Tinubu added that a law to back the proposed special punitive levy against non_indigenes who fail to be counted in Lagos was already in the making.

Reinforcing the governor�s position, Mr. Dele Alake, Commissioner for Information & Strategy announced a restriction on movement between the hours of 8am and 4pm, adding that the restriction of movement by non indigenes must be observed in totality and everyone interested in working, doing business or schooling in Lagos must show evidence of having been counted in Lagos.

The government of Rivers State is toeing a similar line. From Rivers State, George Onah reports that the state�s Information Commissioner, Mr. Magnus Abe in an interview said that anybody who travels outside the state to get counted is �at variance with the purpose of the place where he has been living and earning his living. Saturday Vanguard inquired on whether people could travel out of the state and how prepared the state was on the head count which will commence on Tuesday March 21, 2006 Abe said �If anybody who lives in Port Harcourt travels out of the state for this census, the person should consider himself at variance with the purposes of the place where he has been living and earning his living. We have made the point that people should be counted where they live. Because at the end of the day, the purpose of this exercise is to enable every government to plan to be able to provide for everybody within their territory and their area. So, if you live in Rivers State and you run to Kogi (State) to be counted, you are doing a disservice to where you live. When you come here you will not have water, road and other social amenities, how do you begin to complain. We didn�t know you were here.

So I think that it is important that everybody who lives in Rivers State should be counted in Rivers State. Let me use this opportunity to say that we are taking stringent measures to see that enybody who lives here and works here and leaves the state during the period of this census would suffer some repercussion or the other. So if you want to take the risk, go ahead, but I assure you that there will be some discomfort for those who choose to do that. So, it is not advisable and it�s not in anybody�s interest (to do so). Everybody, from the President to the smallest census official, has said that people should be counted where they live. This is a housing and population census. It is not just a population census. We have done enumeration of dwellings and people live in those dwellings. That was why it was made so. As a result if you live here and you go where they didn�t do an EAD on you, you are just messing up the system and messing up yourself.�

Saturday Vanguard also sought to know about the security arrangements put in place. Abe said, �Rivers State from day one has been more prepared for security than any other state in the country. We have more security men deployed, we have more equipment deployed, more backing, with the whole Federal Government of Nigeria (you can quote me on that), no other state gives as much security support as Rivers State Government and the benefits are there for all to see. This is still one of the few towns in the country where at any time, day or night you still find people going about their legitimate business. Not that we have zero crime level, we have, however, given people a sense of security and it is round the streets.�

Other states, while not overtly restricting peoples� movement nonetheless are mobilizing their peoples for the head count. In Katsina, Governor Musa Yar�Adua expressed satisfaction at the preparedness of the National Population Commission (NPC), and declared that elected and appointed representatives from the state would be drafted to mobilize their respective constituencies and ensure the success of the exercise from March 21. Governor Yar�Adua spoke when NPC boss, Chief Samu�ila Danko Makama paid an advocacy visit to Governor Umaru Musa Yar�Adua and the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Muhammad Kabir Usman in Katsina.

From Yobe State comes the report that the state government has established committees in all the local governments of the state to mobilize people to participate in the head count. The committees are said to be headed by cabinet commissioners. Such include the census sub-committee for Gulani local government area, under the chairmanship of Aji Yerima Bularafa, a commissioner. The Damaturu census sub-committee is headed by another commissioner, Malam Garba Maidugu. Maidugu said the challenge of the committee is that of aggressive awareness to sensitize the people on the relevance of the census exercise.

The Kano State government, on its part simply shut schools in the state with a view to enabling students participate in the exercise. Ogun State Government however directed its schools to accelerate their activities and bring the current school term to a quicker end so students can participate in the census. The Daniel administration is also mobilizing the state�s residents towards successful hosting of the National Sports Festival which the state is hosting, and which commences after the census.

Backing the states with federal power last Wenesday was President Olusegun Obasanjo, who announced a total restriction of movement of persons next Friday and Saturday. Charles Ozoemena reports that at a presidential stakeholders� forum convened to discuss the state of census 2006 preparations in Abuja, the President said that everything possible was being done to ensure that the exercise was successful, adding that we could not but be serious with it if we are to be taken seriously by the international community and make a success of our development drive.
He said it was regrettable that many years after our independence, the country was yet to have a reliable figure of its population, adding that the development had made it difficult for successive governments to plan and ensure sustainable development in the country.

He said: �In this modern era, it is embarrassing for any nation that aspires for greatness, stability, growth and sustainable development to be without an acceptable census figure. With the giant strides that we are currently making in all spheres of our development, we must make the census a priority�.

�We are now in a democratic dispensation and we all owe it a duty to ensure that the 2006 Census succeeds. The 2006 Census is a test case for Nigeria and we must ensure that Nigeria passes this test in flying colours�, he added.
Non-governmental bodies have also lent their voices and efforts towards mobilizing the people for the census. After initial objections regarding exclusion of some demographic indicators in the data collection for the census, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which had earlier threatened a boycott of Christians, soft-pedalled, and enjoined their flock to participate in the census. Similarly, Muslims have been enjoined to make themselves available for the headcount and register with their Islamic names in order to reflect their religious identity.

Giving the advice in a communique issued at the end of its 62nd executive council meeting in Ibadan, last weekend, Organisation of Muslim Unity (OMU) said all Muslims nationwide were enjoined to participate fully in the forthcoming census exercise.

In the communique jointly signed by OMU�s president, Alhaji Waheed Shittu and Public Relations Officer (PRO), Alhaji Sulaimon Abdul-Rahmon, the Islamic group said all Muslims in the country should make themselves available for the head-count and register with their Muslim names in order to reflect their Islamic identity.
�All Muslims nationwide are enjoined to participate fully in the forthcoming National Population Census. They should make themselves available for counting and register with their Muslim names in order to reflect their Islamic identify,� said OMU.

But there are problem areas. From Jos, Plateau State come reports that there are complaints that radio and television messages from NPC urging participation in the head count could not be understood by much of the populace as they were done in English. Some NPC enumerators opined that the lack of public education in Hausa language which most of the residents understand has given rise to apathy in the rural areas. However, the commission is said to be making efforts to raise awareness for the programme as it has ordered posters, some of which are in Hausa to the rural areas.
In Adamawa State, there exists a different dimension to the language problem. Some local government chairmen have expressed fears on the success of the census because most of the personnel sent to handle the exercise do not understand the local dialects and therefore can not communicate effectively with the people.

The chairmen, who spoke jointly at a stakeholders meeting in Yola to deliberate on the state of preparedness for the head count, also stated that Adamawa�s mountainous topography characterized by difficult terrains will be another obstacle to the successful conduct of the census.

More serious is the possibility that some Nigerians may not even get counted at all. Emma Amaize reported earlier from Warri that if the hostage crisis in the Niger Delta is not resolved before the head-count begins, there are strong fears that enumerators would refuse to go into the Ijaw terrain where the militants are holding the hostages.
Right now, three hostages, two Americans and a Briton are still in custody of the militants, who are believed to have holed up in the creeks of a community in the Gbaramatu clan.

Some of the enumerators confided to Vanguard that they would rather dump the assignment than risk their lives if they were posted to the Ijaw communities. It is suspected that the hostages are held by the militants in the creeks of a community in Gbaramatu clan.

It was not known whether the NPC has alerted the Federal Government of the worries being expressed by the enumerators and the measures put in place to handle it, but the Minister of Police Affairs, Alaowei Broderick Bozimo who spoke on ways to avoid a failure in the forthcoming census, weekend, urged the militants for the umpteenth time to release the hostages, saying that �government is ready to talk, government has been patient and ready to look at their grievances.�
His words: �this is another opportunity for Gbaramatu clan to take part in the exercise. And we are beginning to see that unless they release the hostages, the climate will not be conducive for the exercise.