Odimegwu quits as census chairman

Ayorinde Oluokun/ Abuja

Eze Festus Odimegwu, the Chairman of National Population Commission, NPC has resigned after a brief tenure marked by controversies.

The resignation of the former Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria’s leading brewery, NB plc was announced in a statement issued Thursday from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

It was signed by Sam Nwaobasi, the media aide to Anyim Pius Anyim, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

No reason was given for the resignation of Odimegwu which, according to the statement took immediate effect.

But there have been calls for the sack of the former brewer, especially following his assertions that the country has not conducted any credible census since it started engaging in the exercise since 1816.

Odumegwu alleged that the figures released after previous census exercises, the last of which was held in 2006 were mostly cooked up.

“There was no census, ” the former NB plc managing director said at a press conference earlier this year of the 2006 exercise.

“Mind you population forgery is done everywhere, is done in every states, every locality, every region, it’s not restricted in any particular region. It’s done everywhere because politicians want to manipulate it because they want to use it during politics,” he added while affirming that government officials forged figures for states and local governments in the census.

He also claimed that during a review of the review of the 2006 census in Minna, Niger State, official he identified as Inuwa Mohammed publicly confessed on how money meant for the exercise was shared among government officials.

“Mohammed stood up and told the whole commissioners, all the former directors and new directors that were there for the meeting, how they shared 3 million Pounds and N90 million in a hotel room. The money of hiring and training of enumerators for the census, that there was no census,” he said.

“Somebody called me and said, ‘chairman you must hear this.’ I said put Mohammed on the phone and I said ‘Mohammed I love you, I wished all Nigerians are like you, you are the type of person if you are near me, I would have kissed you.’ And I appointed him my SA in charge of anti-corruption in the NPC,” he added.

The former brewer said because of his belief that the 2006 census was a fraud, he had asked the commission’s lawyers to stop defending cases filed by states and local governments in court challenging the results.

He added that the law guiding census must be reviewed if the next exercise scheduled for 2016 is to be credible. The results of the past census exercises had consistently indicated that the Northern part of the country is the most populated region of Nigeria, against the norm in other West African countries.

Population is a key factor in allocation of revenue to states and local governments from the federal purse. It is also one of the indices used in the creation of local governments.

Thus, the Northern part of Nigeria has benefitted from its being ranked as the most populous part of the country in the past exercises.

However, most Southerners had also consistently disagreed with the census results, with claims that the Northern part of the country with vast Sahelian and desert areas cannot be more populated than the South. Like Odimegwu, they had also claimed that the results of the past exercise were manipulated.

It was therefore not a surprise that the former NB plc CEO assertions did not go down well with most Nigerians, especially from the Northern part of the country.

Indeed, Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso, after a visit to President Jonathan in August described the appointment of Odimegwu as Chairman of NPC a “mistake”.

The 2006 census indicated that Kano with 44 local government areas is the most populated state in Nigeria, thus, Kwankwaso was angered that rather than use the opportunity of his appointment to correct the wrongs if any, Odimegwu, has rather chosen to rubbish past efforts: “Even if it was wrong, he now has good opportunity to correct but instead of doing that, he has been running around to discredit the 2006 census. That means he is trying to kill that one. And in our own opinion, as long as he is there, he has already killed the 2016 census before it starts.”

The Kano State Governor who asked President Jonathan to sack Odimegwu said the former brewer may have been intoxicated when making the statements in which he discredited the past census exercises.

“He had only worked in alcoholic industry, all his life. And my guess is that he’s taking a lot of his products and that is why we feel that his appointment is a mistake because he cannot be the Chairman of NPC and at the same time attacking what his predecessors had done,” said the Governor.

Leading Northern socio-political organisation, the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF also urged the Federal Government not to allow Odimegwu conduct the 2016 census, for saying previous census exercises were manipulated in a communiqué it issued after its meeting of 27, August.

But the pan-Yoruba socio cultural group, Afenifere had faulted the call with the argument that Odimegwu has not said anything new.

Yinka Odumakin, spokesperson of Afenifere said in an interview that the North is against because the region has made unjust gains through manipulations of previous exercises.

“It is on the basis of manipulated census that the North, which was one out of three regions we had in the country, now has 19 states, while the Western and Eastern regions have 17 states combined. In the First Republic, Lagos and Kano were divisions,” said Odumakin who further noted that while Kano has been divided into Kano and Jigawa states, with 77 local government areas shared between the two, Lagos has remained one state, with about 20 local governments.

“It is also on the basis of this that the North-West and the North-East have enough representatives in the National Assembly to initiate the impeachment of the President; they can influence things because of this manipulation of census,” asserted Odumakin.

The former NPC Chairman was also supported by the apex Igbo socio-political organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo as well as Christians in the Northern part of the country. But this did not stop the federal government from issuing a query to Odimugwu over the issue. In the query issued by the SGF, the Federal Government had demanded explanations from the NPC Chairman over his “unguarded utterances.”

The Northern zone of Christian Association of Nigeria said in issuing the query, President Jonathan merely succumbed to blackmail from the Northern part of the country ahead of the 2015 general elections.

“What Odimegwu said was the truth; the figure of the 2006 census was cooked to support and favour the core North. The Middle Belt was grossly undermined and we are not happy with that. Odimegwu has stated the fact of the matter. The coming census must be addressed in such a transparent way” Sunny Oibe, CAN’s Public Relations Officer for the 19 Northern States and Abuja said in the statement while affirming that Odimegwu must be allowed to conduct the next census while the query issued to him must be withdrawn.

It was not clear whether Odimegwu responded to the query or chose the option of voluntarily throwing in the towel as indicated in the government’s statement.

Apart from the controversies generated by his statements over the credibility of the past census exercises, Odimegwu was also confronted with internal revolt during his less than two years tenure in NPC.

About 24 out of the 35 commissioners of NPC had in an eight page petition to the presidency some weeks ago called for the removal of Odimegwu over what they described as his ‘high-handedness and unguarded utterances’ which they said are capable of undermining preparations for 2016 Census. .

Indeed, it was gathered that Odimegwu was also queried over some allegations contained in the petition.

The “basis for continued confidence in the chairman has been destroyed irretrievably,” said the 24 National Population Commissioners from across the six geo-political zones of this country in the petition.

They alleged that the unfortunate and unbecoming conduct of the National Population Commission Chairman, Eze Festus Odimegwu, has precipitated the present seeming anarchy pervading the commission and generated the persisting unhealthy national debate on past census results in this country.”

They alleged that Odimegwu has continued to make inflammatory statements since his appointment in June 2012.

“In keeping with his style and without justification, he brazenly accused the Commission’s leadership during the 2006 head count of having sold enumeration area demarcation to unnamed politician.”

The Commissioners also asked the Presidency to investigate how equipment manufacturers (who are National Population Commission’s contractors in waiting) for 2016 census had been sponsoring some NPC Commissioners on foreign trips in violation of the Public Procurement Act.

They also alleged that the Commission has not been holding statutory meetings as required by NPC Act and making appointments without regard to extant laws and regulations: “He has appointed three Special Advisers/Assistant from the private sector without recourse to the Commission and to whom he has issued the Commission’s Identity Cards and entrusted them with official documents of the Commission. The Special Advisers/Assistants attend official functions, seminars, retreat and receive allowances from the Commission,” the Commissioners said.

Sam Ahaiwe, the Commissioner representing Abia State in the Commission has been appointed to act as chairman pending the appointment of a substantive Chairman to replace Odimegwu.