CONFAB CENSUS TUSSLE: How many Nigerians are really here?

THERE was rowdy session at the plenary of the ongoing national conference, when a delegate from Edo State, Chris Agbonwanegbe, questioned the authenticity of census figure of states in the Northern Nigeria.

Agbonwanegbe said census figures were inflated in favour of some states in the North, saying this accounted for more number of local government areas created in the region.

He said this while making his contribution to the debate on the report of the conference’s Committee on Political Restructuring and Forms of Government. He stirred the hornet’s nest when he challenged previous census figures that had been bandied around since the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Nigeria.

He called on delegates to address the injustice which led to the creation of more states and local government areas in the North, as against what was obtainable in the South.

Specifically, Agbonwanegbe made reference to the disparity in the number of local governments in Kano and Lagos states. He said while Lagos with the highest number of people in Nigeria had only 20 local government areas, Kano State on the other hand, with a population close to that of Lagos, has 44 local government areas.

The Edo delegate, who refused to be intimated by uproars from northern delegates, who made futile efforts to shout him down, concluded that Nigerians did not have the capacity to conduct a free and credible census.

Agbonwanegbe advocated that the United Nations should step in and conduct Nigeria’s census, in order to give the country credible results that would finally put the long years of population disparity to rest.

 His submission did not go down well with many delegates from the North, who almost tried to stampede him to keep quiet proved abortive, as the chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, ignored them.

http://tribune.com.ng/confab/item/9629-uproar-at-confab-over-census-figures