BREAKING: Ohanaeze Ndigbo Blasts Tinubu’s National Census Committee Over Alleged Federal Character Breach

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has rejected the National Census Committee set up by the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The presidency had through a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information Strategy, announced the inauguration of a high-level committee on the forthcoming national population and housing census.

Bagudu announced committee chairman

Nigeria’s last census was in 2006, nearly two decades ago. It recorded a population of 140,431,790, with 71,345,488 males and 69,086,302 females.

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, was announced as the chairman of the committee.

Other members are the Minister of Information, Muhammed Idris; the National Population Commission (NPC) chairman, Nasir Isa Kwarra, who will also serve as the committee secretary; as well as the the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Director General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the Principal Private Secretary to the President, and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Administration and Operations (Office of the Chief of Staff).

Ohanaeze Ndigbo alleges marginalisation

Reacting, the immediate past Vice President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ichie Damian Okeke Ogene, said the committee was skewed against other sections of the country, especially the Southeast, in favour of the South-West.

Ogene said that census is a very sensitive matter, adding that every process pertaining to it must be seen to be fair to all the regions of the country.

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In an exclusive interview with Legit.ng correspondent on Tuesday, April 29, Ogene noted that “we have waited to see whether the presidency will do the needful, but the situation remains the same nearly three weeks after that one-sided committee was inaugurated.

He said:

“Nigerians are aware of the issues that always trailed past census figures and we expected that for once, the country should get it right.

“It is, however, regrettable that the current government has started on the wrong footing by appointing a committee that is totally dominated by people of the Southwest – completely excluding the Southeast – yet, they tag it national committee.

“There is nothing national about that committee as it completely nenages the principle of federal character, just like most appointments done so far by Tinubu’s government.

“This is totally unacceptable and we urge Mr President to either disband the committee or expand it to accommodate other regions of the country.

“The national assembly supposed to point out these lapses, and make sure they’re corrected, but they would not. They give approval and pass whatever that are sent to them, not minding what they are. This is why many Nigerians described this current 10th national assembly as rubber stamp legislature.

“I think that by now, we should be doing things that will strengthen our unity as a country; not things that will divide us. If the federal character principle is no longer working for us, we can as well scrap it from our constitution, so that we can be sure that what we’re practicing is winner takes all.

He added that census should not be handled like other actions of the current administration, stressing, “Southe East will not accept allocation of figures.”

Ohanaeze demands Tinubu to apologize

Earlier, Legit.ng had reported that the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, had called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to offer an official apology and pay N10 trillion in compensation to the Igbo people over historical injustices stemming from the 1966 coup and the subsequent Nigerian Civil War.

The demand follows recent revelations by former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, who stated that the coup was not an Igbo-led operation, as previously alleged.