by Eze Eluchie
From the numbers churned out by authorities of the Nigerian contraption as population
figures, Nigeria is the only country on planet Earth where the more you depart
the coastal regions and areas of rich vegetation and move hinterland towards
arid desert regions, the more ‘people’ you will see!
Demographers
and population scientists will readily inform that historically, human
habitation and settlements tend to gravitate, above all else, towards one fundamental
source of human existence, water. People ordinarily tend to congregate towards
those locations where they will have access to water. This remains the
situation throughout the African continent.
Across the
globe, from the United States to China, Russia to Brazil, Sweden to Australia,
New Zealand to Iceland to Mali, to wheresoever, populations tend to congregate
more densely towards the coast. More people live on the coastal regions than in
the arid hinterland – Nigeria, and only our good old Nigeria, records a reversal
of this global fact.
In Nigeria
however, the reverse, going by the fraud of population figures, is the case. The
fraud in the Nigerian census figures is exposed by the fact that in all other countries
along the West African coast (Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal and Guinea
et al), which share similar geographical diversity and multi-ethnic composition
with Nigeria, their population figures rhyme with reality and tally with the
expectations of science and demography. All other West African countries, with
the exception of Nigeria, have a majority of their population residing in the
coastal regions!
An analysis
of population census figures in Nigeria, dating from colonial periods, reveal
historical fraud of monumental proportions geared towards achieving the
intendments of the colonial overlords - intendments which served to ensure, at
the departure of the colonialists, skewed representation and enthronement of
mediocrity in governance, which in turn assured the departing colonialists
continued control over the affairs of Nigeria long after ‘independence’.
The benefits
derivable from inflated population figures in a country like Nigeria are
overwhelming. Whereas benefits accrue based on falsified figures, no
responsibilities are attached as a result of such fraud. The peculiarities of
the Nigerian situation, where what is commonly referred to as the ‘national
cake’ (billions of US Dollars accruing to the Federation from crude oil sales
and whatsoever) and virtually all benefits accruable to citizens are
distributed to the various States based on ‘population figures’, makes it ‘profitable’
for populations to be manufactured where non exists in reality.
The dubious population
figures which have been used for everything, from the allotment of seats in the
National Legislative houses in Nigeria, to entry into the military and security
agencies, to appointment of Federal Ministers, to admission into High School and other academic institutions and the creation of ‘States’
and ‘Local Government Areas’, has led to the institutionalization of fraud in
the polity. Phantom population figures lead to phantom economic projections, which in
turn generate phantom developmental agenda and ultimately a phantom country.
Whilst other
countries will seize the opportunity of national census to know as much as
possible about their populations, the makeup, the diversity and peculiarities,
the most recent national census in Nigeria, held in 2006, was unique in the
sense that virtually all other indices which would have revealed the horrendous
fraud which had been perpetuated over the decades was deliberately omitted –
the 2006 national census ended up producing numbers which were vehemently
contested by virtually all segments of the Nigerian contraption.
To begin to adequately appreciate what our problems are and be able to address it effectively, we need to know how many we truly are.
The call for
renegotiation and restructuring of the Nigerian contraption embodies the need
for realistic and factual census figures.
Links: Population density across West Africa (note the geographical disparity between the purported population of Nigeria and that of the other countries) :
Picture: Population density in Africa based on Nigerian figures
