Census Crucial for Development – Tribunal Chairman

Leadership (Abuja)

Tony Amokeodo And Ahuraka Isah

1 July 2011

interview

The chairman of Census Tribunal (C), Justice Ifeyinwa Obegolu, in this interview with TONY AMOKEODO and AHURAKA ISAH, speaks on the challenges facing the tribunal, attitude of Nigerians to recent head count and other topical issues. Excerpts:

As the chairman of the Census Tribunal, you may have been confronted with certain challenges. What has been the experience so far?

It has been very challenging. The tribunal was set up to sit over the petitions arising from the nation’s 2006 Census. There are three census tribunal listed as A, B, C,. each tribunal handles the petitions from two geo-political zones. My own tribunal (C) is in charge of the North-Central and South-West geopolitical zones. When we were inaugurated last year, we came in with a mindset that we would not face much challenges. But surprisingly, every other locality filed petitions before us. There are 148 petitions before me, and in some cases, there could be as high as 300 witnesses to testify in a petition. You know census is at the heart of Nigerians. They believe that revenue allocation, the Independent National Electoral Commission constituency delineation and the rests are tied to census figures. Definitely, INEC cannot delineate well unless the commission knows the population in that area, and cannot constituency unless they know the actual population. The federal government allocates revenue according to the population of a state or local government area. Every Community in my zones is contesting the population figure ascribed to it from the last census in Nigeria. Therefore I found it very challenging but very interesting.

But Lagos State, which is part of your jurisdiction, has consistently protested that it was incorrectly counted in the last census exercise. Has there been merit in the state’s protest?

Well, we have not gone into the Lagos matter deeply, because what you claim is one thing, and what you prove is another. It is not just Lagos, every other communities covered by us insist that they were not accurately counted. But is a matter of prove: if you claim something. You must lead evidence to show that what you claim is true. Until this things are proved, we are not in a position to say that their their claims are right or wrong. I though that before the census commenced, the National Population Commission (NPC) should have educated the people on the measures been adopted. Because in this census what they did was to apply a de facto head count as opposed to the June census adopted in the past. So it created some problems, everybody is claiming there population is supposed to be this or that. But that may not be the case. The law says, NPC, go to the field or states, anybody you see in the house, you count. If they are not there, come back. And if you check twice and they are not there, it means that it is only those you met are the ones living in that house. So until you prove otherwise, you can claim anything.

But the larger population may like to know the differences between defacto and dejure census method?

In the 1963, they did the dejure counting, which means if the NPC people come to you house, you as the head of the family can tell them, this is the number of people living with me. The family head can say he has so many children and these are their names and these are where they are. The NPC will believe him and record him. Don’t forget that after the 1963 census when defacto method was applied, there were complaints that the people in the North counted their cattles, sheep and goats as part of the population.

Because of that, they amended the law, because there were a lot of agitations that the people inflated their population figures. Even the Western Nigeria almost ran riot, saying the number of people were inflated in certain areas. The government looked at the law and said let’s change the law and apply defacto measure of head count. And the de facto means, when you come to the house, even if there are 200 people living in it but met only two persons, the law mandates you to record that figure only. But you should tell them you are coming back the following day. If you come back the following day and still meet the two people that means the population of that house is two.

To what extent is the power of the tribunal viz-a-viz its decision effective over these protests brought before you?

The third schedule of the National Population Act, 2004 contains the powers conferred on the chairmen and members of the tribunal. And the only power conferred is to hear petitions and decide. Once the result is signed, we publicise the result, as the people to file petitions and decide.These are the only power we have. But if the tribunal found out that the population of a place was not properly counted, we can make an order for the president of the country to make a re-count.

But the president has the power to say that he will not order for a recount.

So, the power conferred on the tribunal is not necessarily binding ?

It is not an absolute power. The president in his wisdom can say in the interest of peace and security, the re-counting order should wait till the next census exercise.

From you experience, is the non-binding effect on census tribunal proper?

We can order for recount, but appeal against our decision or judgment lies at the Court of Appeal, and even up to the Supreme Court. If we give a judgment that is not satisfactory to either party in the petition they can appeal against the decision at the Court of Appeal. This is because the jurdiction of the tribunal is equal to that of the High Court.

Do you think the tribunal can make meaningful impact before the next counting period?

We would achieve a lot. There are so many things to achieve, we can make order that would be obeyed, we can even make recommendations or push for amendment of certain aspects of our laws that is no longer appropriate.

The Adavi/Okehi case of Kogi Central Senatorial District is a classical example of the NPC dilemma in recording population figure in an area with border disputes. Is the tribunal capable of settling such matters?

If you listened to the Chairman of NPC when he was presenting the 2006 census report to to then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, he was honest enough because he made it clear even in the gazette that they had their own challenges. That Okehi and Adavi is one of the challenges the NPC. That there are boundary disputes in certain areas and in most cases, just as the tribunal didn’t know what to do. But that it did what it was supposed to make out of the circumstance and left the rest for the law people to interpret. And that was what the NPC did. When I read it in the gazette, I didn’t even know it was real until I saw it.

AllAfrica – All the Time