Posted by By MOSHOOD ADEBAYO, Abeokuta, HAMMED BODUNRIN, OSOGBO, TUNDE RAHEEM, Akure, ROSE EJEMBI, Makurdi and IBRAHIM BARDE, Kano on
It was a bad day for an enumerator in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital Sunday who was beaten to a state of stupor by angry people protesting not being enumerated in the national headcount which draws to close today, still trailed by sundry crises.
It was a bad day for an enumerator in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital Sunday who was beaten to a state of stupor by angry people protesting not being enumerated in the national headcount which draws to close today, still trailed by sundry crises.
The residents, who stripped Hakeem Soyinka almost naked, were not happy at the enumeration exercise in the ancient city despite being forced to stay at home for six days.
The incident, came as reports nation-wide showed that some initial problems still dog the exercise. They include shortage of census materials, boundary disputes, protests by the National Population Commission (NPC) field officers who, despite assurances by the NPC national chairman, Dr Samuai'la Makama, have threatened not to submit the census materials and records unless duly paid for their services.
There are fears that these problems could affect the exercise resulting in under-counting of the population despite the two-day extension of its duration.
Relating his experience to Daily Sun, Soyinka said: "It was in the cause of performing the national duty that I and my colleagues met angry residents at Saje who protested not being counted since the beginning of the national exercise."
Youthful Soyinka who described the experience as terrible said: " As I tried to explain to them that there were shortage of enumeration materials nation-wide, the residents decended on me with slaps."
Daily Sun learnt that he was later rescued by the police who also arrested and detained three suspects at the Divisional Police Office, Adatan.
Meanwhile, commercial activities have returned to the ancient city of Abeokuta just as enumerators were seen tidying up their records by recording from the Form 01 to Form 06 which many of them have threatened not to submit unless they were paid their allowances.
Amidst allegations of non payment and under payment of allowances, thousands of the enumerators in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital threatened not submitting the collated census figures.
Daily Sun investigations in Abeokuta South, Abeokuta North, Odeda and Obafemi-Owode Concil Areas of the state revealed that enumeration officers were not happy with their controllers whom they have accused of mis-appropriating funds allegedly allocated for the exercise.
Reacting to the threat, the Chairman of Abeokuta South Local Government, Mr. Hakeem Odejimi (a.k.a. Ologbohun) appealed to the enumerators not to hold on to the results of the exercise.
Afenifere ascribed the apparent failure of the exercise to poor planning, shoddy organisation and over centralisation of the polity, whch it says, has again brought to the fore the need to restructure.
"It is safe to conclude that the census exercise has joined the string of failures recorded by our 3rd-term seeking presidency despite over three years of preparation and N54 billion down the drain," the socio-cultural group said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin.
"At the core of this failure is the refusal to come to terms with the fact that the Federal Government as presently constituted cannot successfully organise a cold tea party."
This has brought home clearly the imperative for national restructuring. If the kind of unofficial preparations made by the Lagos State government for the census had been officially done at all the constituent units and many of the powers held at the centre devolved to the constituent authorities, the story would have been different.
"There is now no gainsaying the fact that except we truly restructure and have a brand new constitution to that effect as against the present third term constitution in the work, we are just wasting our time as a people because nothing will work."
And if President Obasanjo still want to continue with the over-centralisation, he should call for the video clips of the Solid Minerals Forum held in Abuja a few days ago. The president was the chairman, guest speaker and even the master of ceremony at the event. He, of course, did virtually all the talking. By the time he was giving the vote of thanks (yes, he did!) after over five hours, many seats including that of the Alaafin of Oyo have become vacant. That's the danger of over-centralisation.
The group commiserates with all Nigerians who had made enormous sacrifices thinking that the FG would be able to conduct a credible census. Alas, it has turned out another "barren exercise".
Apprehension over possible under-counting as well as reports of insufficient materials and boundary disputes among communities continued to trail the ongoing census in Osun state at the weekend.
For instance, people of Inisa, in Odo-Otin Local Government area of Osun State on Sunday, protested alleged marginalisation meted to their community by the officials of the National Population Commission [NPC], in the state.
The community, at a press briefing in Osogbo by the National President of Inisa Descendants Union Prof. Labo Popoola, said that the town with a total of 206 enumerated areas representing 23.35 per cent of the total number of EAs in the council area was heavily marginalised in the distribution of census materials.
"Confirmed information at our disposal indicates that we have a shortfall in supply to the tune of 982 forms, in other words, we are as yet not at par with other localities in the LGA in terms of distribution of census materials," Popoola stressed.
Meanwhile, reports of inadequate materials still pervaded the state as officials of NPC and the government kept meeting and reassuring the populace that the extension would solve the problem.
The Ondo State government has restricted movement between the hours of 6 a.m and 6 p.m Monday so that the census exercise will be concluded.
This, Mr. Femi Agagu, Chief of Staff (COS) to the Governor Olusegun Agagu, is to avail enumerators the opportunity of covering all the parts of the state that had not been touched.
According to him, "with the restriction of movement, we are sure that we will be able to cover the whole of Ondo state. We have also got in touch with the highest census authorities in the country and the problem of shortage of materials have been redressed.
"The intervention of the governor has also led to the resolution of the disputes and communal clashes that were witnessed at the beginning of the census. Everywhere is now peaceful and enumeration going on smoothly in those areas."
The Ondo COS also announced the establishment of a census situation office located within the premises of the Government House where all census complaints from the public are being directed and redressed.
Meanwhile, an assistant comptroller with the NPC in Benue State is currently being held and questioned by the Police for allegedly selling NPC form 01 just as shortage of the said form in the state has made a local government to photocopy it so that its community could be counted.
The accused, whose name the state Police Commissioner, Mr Ibe Aghanya, refused to disclose, was alleged to have sold five cartons of the form which is now a scarce commodity in the state at the cost of N1million at Ogbadibo Local Government area of the state.
The census official drowned in a dam in Bagwai Local Government area of Kano State at the beginning of the census programme, five days ago has been found by divers in the locality.
According to the divers who spoke to a team of journalists in Bagwai at the weekend, the corpse of the enumerator, who was identified as Murtala Rabiu, was found swollen, floating in-between ridges of water waves on the dam and without his wears.
Chairman, of Samu'ila Danko Makama yesterday said the headcount is 95 per cent successful. Makama told newsmen in Abuja saying that no census in any country has 100 per cent enumeration.
On the controversial payment of enumerators, he explained that the process must be orderly otherwise wrong people would be paid, saying, however, that NPC was not involved with the payment, but the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which brought over N20 billion to the project, supplemented by N2 billion released by the government.