Census Controversy: APC Group Demands Sack, Prosecution of NPC Chairman, Kwarra over N200bn Expenditure
From Kelechi Opara, Abuja
Following the suspension of the 2023 Census exercise after spending a staggering N200 billion, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Integrity group has demanded the immediate sack and prosecution of the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Kwarra.
According to the group, the action of the NPC Chairman and the management was a huge embarrassment to the government that prides itself as fighting corruption.
In the statement issued late on Sunday by the Chairman of the Group Malam Dawu Mohammed and Secretary, Comrade Chinsom Nwakanma, the Integrity group said it is unbecoming of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the APC-led administration to be dragging the name of the party to the mud.
It could be recalled that the Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed had said that the incoming government would fix a new date for the much advertised census.
However, in defending the Commission’s activities, Issa-Kwarra said: “What we’ve been able to spend is about N200 billion, but the N800 billion budgets cover the cost of conducting the census. The government has given us N800 billion, but it is a budget, and we believe we may either spend up to that or not.
“The government has actually provided N224 billion which we have utilized for the census so far.”
Kwarra said the cost of conducting a digital census was high, because equipment and data for the enumeration would be procured.
He equally claimed that the Commission recruited about one million personnel to ensure a credible and acceptable digital census.
The NPC boss while commending the media in the role it played in sensitizing the public on the project, lauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to postpone the census, as he noted that it was the right thing to do as the country is about to transit from one administration to another.
He also reassured Nigerians of his resolve to conduct the census in a serene and secure environment.
“It is important to sustain the tempo of the preparation for the census. The focus of the commission is to lay a foundation for future censuses,’’ he said.
Also buttressing the Chairman’s position, lnuwa Jalingo, census manager, stated that the commission worked round-the-clock to conduct a digital census
He said, “the NPC has already set up a robust quality dashboard and data for a credible census.”
It would be recalled that the NPC was last year enmeshed with allegation of spending N1.8 billion in holding conferences. This allegation led them to face National Assembly Committee.
The APC Integrity Group said, “we listened with dismay the breakfast meeting of the NPC management held with media executives last week.
“In that meeting, we heard the National Chairman say they have spent N200 billion in preparation for the 2023 census. According to the chairman, the census is to cost N800 billion.
“The essence of the breakfast meeting as we observed was for the Media Executives to impress it on the government to release the remaining money for the census to be conducted.
“However, as stakeholders in the APC, our position is that the NPC Chairman, Nasir Kwarra should be sacked and prosecuted for reckless spending of tax payers money.
“We view sincerely the actions of the NPC Chairman and his management team as embarrassment to the party, just as it portray bad image of the party.
“We are of the opinion that for Nigerians to take us serious as a political party, we need to purge ourselves of bad elements that bring repudiation to the party.”
The national census in Nigeria was conducted in 2006.
