LP alleges diversion of N234b Buhari released, APC rambles about it
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
How the N234 billion that Muhammadu Buhari released for the aborted national census in the twilight of his presidency was disbursed has not been explained because the money was diverted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election campaign, the Labour Party (LP) has alleged.
The National Population Commission (NPC) budgeted about N800 billion for the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
Under Buhari, a total N224 billion was released by May 2023 in addition to N10 billion approved in October 2020 for Enumeration Area Demarcation across 546 Local Government Areas.
The census, originally scheduled for May 2023, was postponed to allow the next administration provide input.
However, 17 months into his tenure, Buhari’s successor Bola Tinubu, a member of the APC, has not announced a new date for the census, raising concerns about the implications for governance, economic planning, and resource allocation.
In a rambling answer, APC Deputy National Organising Secretary Nze Duru said the census programme is a national assignment that is on course and would eventually be facilitated by the current APC administration – without explaining how the N234 billion released was spent.
LP National Publicity Secretary Obiora Ifoh scoffed that the current administration may not be able to explain what happened to the money.
In his view, it was obvious from the start that the census fund released by the Buhari administration was originally meant to prosecute and tilt the 2023 election in favour of the APC, the ruling party then and now.
“In the eight years of Muhammed Buhari, this issue of census came up, and we have never seen it happen. Most of the years, the money released for census matters either just fly away or get swallowed by snakes. Yet, we have never seen any census conducted,” he told The PUNCH.
“In a saner clime, census is held every five years or thereabout. But in Nigeria, it takes about 10 or 20 years to conduct one. Again, in the case of Nigeria, monies are budgeted almost every year.
“Now, if that chunk of money was released a few months before the election but failed to hold and nobody accounted for it, it does not take anyone to decipher why the money disappeared.
“It was obviously used to execute the election and the person in charge of the population census has not come out to tell us what happened to the money.
“Has the money been returned to the Central Bank or is it cooling in one house? We expect the security agencies to demand and request the money. What has happened to it? If the money has not been used or appropriated, it should be returned to the coffers of the federal government.”
APC rambles about fund
Duru in his reaction stressed that the census is on course and would be facilitated by the current APC administration, but failed to answer the question hovering over the fund already release.
Said he: “I do not see any concern. I believe that is something that will happen and I know it will happen shortly. We cannot have any provision in the budget without capturing the population of the country and where the people are resident. So, it’s something that we require, and I know efforts are ongoing to ensure it happens.
“We cannot continue to play politics with critical data that is required to enable the government to provide comprehensively and adequately for the people of this country. Do we need a population census to know the demography and numbers of Nigerians today? Yes, we do. But should it be an event? I do not think so.
“I believe it is something that must be updated hourly, daily, monthly and yearly. We should not wait for an event, a particular time, to determine the number of Nigerians in the country. The population is so critical for data, budgeting and provisioning of what Nigerians need.
“In providing the dividends of democracy, we cannot afford not to have that data done. There should not be any hullabaloo about it. It is something that can’t even be done without setting a milestone or a deadline on when this can be done.”
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