Dr. Yemi Kale, the Statistician General of the Federation/CEO Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday disclosed in a tweet that Nigeria’s population numbers that put the population of Kano State ahead of Lagos State are incorrect.
“I’ve said repeatedly I don’t think they are correct”, Kale tweeted via his official and verified Twitter account in response to a conversation thread where the actual population of Kano State was being disputed.
See the thread:
Interesting indeed that Kano state apparently has more people than Lagos. But aren’t these figures based on the disputed 2006 census, @sgyemikale? https://t.co/pW5HddSmdf
— Rachel Savage (@rachelmsavage) June 5, 2018
@PaulWallace123 Kano (20,000sqkm) has a larger land area (6×) that of Lagos(3,500sqkm) that’s why the population is sparse in Kano and dense in lagos.
— Ahmad Alwan Naif (@Ahmad_A_Naif) June 5, 2018
Outside Kano city, the state is sparsely populated. To put it into some perspective, Kano state officially has more people than Benin (the country), even though Benin is about six times the size.
— Paul Wallace (@PaulWallace123) June 5, 2018
Interesting. What evidence do we have that it’s sparsely populated?
— Iyinoluwa Aboyeji (@iaboyeji) June 5, 2018
I’ll be vvvvv careful how we choose to make any conclusions/analysis/interpretations on thisbour popn nos… I’ve said repeatedly I don’t think they are correct
— Dr Yemi Kale (@sgyemikale) June 5, 2018
Why use them in NBS reports then?
— Rachel Savage (@rachelmsavage) June 5, 2018
As Statistician General he can’t allow personal opinions dictate the presentation of official data.
Issue here is that NBS cannot carry out its own (credible) census, so we’re all stuck with the rubbish 2006 figures.
We’re in an election year, so we can forget about a new one.
— Ose Anenih (@Papadonkee) June 5, 2018
Recall that in an exclusive interview with The Guardian in Abuja during the launch of Enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS), Kale said that Nigeria’s current population estimates of around 170-180 million were speculations, adding that the nation’s population may be less.
According to him, capturing of the population figures based on three per cent growth rate since 2006 is faulty because the nation is not static but dynamic. He stressed further that rather than marrying early, many women now opt for western education.
He further said that census figures may have been inflated in some quarters in the past, giving the impression that more population of humans reside in certain areas.
“I believe that those who say that Nigeria has a population of 170 million are wrong. This is because you cannot continue to use the three percent growth rate used since 2006 to calculate the current population. So you cannot say accurately that Nigeria’s population is 170 million or more. Certain cultures, like early marriage, which used to be the norm, are now changing. Women are now embracing western education more than they did years ago. That is also a factor to consider. What use to happen is that some people gave wrong census of their population, in order to create the impression that they are more in number? So these contributed to the higher number bandied around often. So, with this, you can see that the nation’s population cannot have reached 170 million in the real sense.
“Only a valid census can capture the real population, thereby putting an end to all sorts of speculation of the population size of the country”, he said.
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