Afrigather 
Nigeria’s Inhabitants is so much lower than 220 million, by Tope Fasua
I keep in mind that day in 2011 when world inhabitants was mentioned to have hit 7 billion. I used to be passing the foyer of the Transcorp Hilton Lodge and the TV on the reception was on BBC Channel. I paused to hearken to the momentous information earlier than shifting on to the close by financial institution. The BBC reporter was in Accra’s Agbogbloshie market, and the digicam would zoom out and in on black pregnant ladies because the reporter ran commentary about how the world inhabitants had exploded and all the hazards that got here with that. I discovered it very distasteful that they might select to find their information protection in Africa after which deal with pregnant black ladies. The final gist that the BBC was silently passing throughout to the world was that black folks had been those populating the world indiscriminately.
Nigeria is the largest perpetrator in Africa, and today, we put our inhabitants at round 220 million. Nigeria’s inhabitants progress fee is put at round 2.6% – 3%, and the opposite day some world physique put out the statistics that Nigeria’s inhabitants will hit 500 million by the 12 months 2050. The final thought out there may be that each one we do is procreate on this nation, and we now have not put out any counter-narrative to this impact. We kind of simply assume that ‘up north’ they’re having so many youngsters. However chances are high that our ladies are much more educated as we speak and are having fewer youngsters per head, and the financial state of affairs can also be stopping so many males from having so many, north or south. The general determine that we declare is definitely contaminated with our politics of prebendalism and patronage, whereby politicians discover methods to inflate the inhabitants of their constituencies as a result of that additionally allows them to gather bigger allocations from the federal authorities, amongst different undue benefits. We definitely aren’t given to a excessive degree of veracity in our public accounting…at the very least not but. There’s due to this fact a purpose to have a look at these figures extra intently.
That is extra in order Nigeria is meant to have one other census this coming Could. We had the final one in 2006, and it was somewhat inconclusive. I recall the controversy in 2013 when the then Chairman of the Nationwide Inhabitants Fee, Dr Festus Odimegwu was requested to resign for making some derogatory feedback round our census figures.
However we now have to take a dispassionate of those points if we’re to make some progress as a nation. In analysis and statistics, it’s often suggested to not acquire information for a singular supply, however that your analysis could be stronger and extra credible if you’ll be able to triangulate your information. Because of this it is best to try to check information throughout at the very least three sources. Once we examine the quantity that we declare as our inhabitants with another sources, it simply doesn’t add up.
My concern as we speak is our election numbers. I’ve mentioned this with quite a few folks however the rationalization they offer doesn’t persuade me. Let’s take a look at this very scary phenomenon. In 1993, the full variety of voters within the basic (presidential election), was 25.4 million. In 1999 the quantity rose to 30 million. Good. In 2003, the quantity additional rose to a whooping 42 million. However since them one thing totally different has been taking place. We noticed a discount to 35 million in 2007, then it rose to 39 million in 2011. In 2015, the full votes had been a complete of 29 million. Whereas in 2019, the numbers fell to 27 million. Surprisingly, within the 12 months 2023, with a lot info dissemination, consciousness and youth participation, when there was certainly a surge in new registrations (9.5 million), and the electoral fee (INEC) had 93 million folks on the register, we couldn’t handle greater than 25.2 million votes. This quantity is lower than what we had in 1993, 30 years in the past.
Because the elections are being rounded up, some folks have complained about rigging and I’m wondering how. When these people see the numbers, they speak about voter suppression. I write this because the governorship and state meeting elections are being carried out and I might see from all stories that there was far much less enthusiasm round these units of elections than the presidential one. I doubt if we are going to discover 15 million on this election. My expertise with the presidential elections was that much more folks got here out. In my polling unit in Abuja, the numbers had been a lot, regardless of the unit having been break up into 4. I imagine that riggers are extra occupied with having massive votes than managing to scrape a win. However we should always observe that the drop within the variety of voters have been nearly constant since after the 2003 elections, so it’s not a brand new phenomenon. I’ll need to put that within the ambit of expertise, which seems to be catching out our lies. It’s nonetheless true, from what we now have seen as proof thus far, that our flesh pressers and their supporters added to their election numbers the place they may get away with it. Because of this even the 25.2 million quantity has a component of vote inflation. If we backed that out, will we be speaking of about 18 million votes or much less? And given the youth enthusiasm and the turnout in my polling unit, I don’t need to purchase that concept that there was apathy. If regardless of all the problems that ought to draw them out, 80-90% of eligible voters in Nigeria simply plainly refuse to come back out to vote, then we’re nearly as good as not having them as residents. I simply don’t purchase it.
With a inhabitants of 220 million folks, maybe we should always have about 150 million eligible to vote within the first place. How does this get prised down tom 93 million, after which 25.2 million on election day – a determine decrease than what we had 30 years in the past? The important thing issue that has modified over time, is the effectivity of expertise. We battle so exhausting to not comply nevertheless it will get us all ultimately.
Then to finish the triangle we might take a look at financial institution data. Nigeria has 54 million financial institution verification numbers, that are speculated to be distinctive, although I perceive some Nigerians discovered methods to acquire a number of BVNs. Our Nationwide Identification Quantity (NIN) – one other distinctive quantity – has about 90 million registrations. This NIN quantity, thoughts you, is for everyone, from a baby born as we speak. So, that quantity approximates Nigeria’s inhabitants give or take one other 20-30% of people that merely refuse to register. The hole between the NIN and BVN may very well be put all the way down to those that refuse to open accounts.
So, why will we declare 220 million? Is it as a result of, like they are saying about Texans, Nigerians like massive issues? May we by some means get a extra cheap quantity with the approaching census? Is it doable for Nigeria to get up at some point and inform the world ‘sorry, we now have been getting our stats incorrect and our inhabitants is 120 million’? I believe if we might current with a extra correct determine, we will have so much to achieve. First, we needs to be taken out of the inglorious record of nations populating the world. We’d additionally get reclassified off the record of a few of the poorest folks on earth as every part per capita all of a sudden shoots up. That might earn us some respect. The numbers of Nigerians in multidimensional poverty may even get reclassified and we should always get some optimistic vibes happening amongst out folks, somewhat than this pervading – even when enticing – pull to despair. We could have boxed our minds right into a darkish nook with our false numbers through the years.
