Nigerian Bureau of Statistics and its ‘wuru wuru’ to the answer tactics
The NBS as its popularly called came into public prominence during the time of brilliant Dr Kale.
The NBS at his time, was used as a barometer to gauge Government performance and also used by Government in policy formulation and execution.
Its reports went a long way to show Nigerians how the Government of the day was faring.
It served as a constant reminder to the Buhari administration that it was not keeping its promise to Nigerians.
Its reports were unbiased. Firmly articulate and pointedly serious and Nigerians started looking forward to them for their own purposes
Ever since he was unceremoniously kicked out, the NBS has reclined back into lethergy, spewing out spurious reports that have continued to gnaw at its credibility.
The recent report on kidnap ranson threw a huge mirror into its activities leading to a possible headlong collision with authotities as reported and denied by thier management
Still reeling from the effects of that last showdown, they have come out with a much more controversial intent.
In trying to rebase the GDP, they have been reported to have announced their intent of including illegal activities such as Prostitution and drug running as legitimate economic activities in their calculations.
Their argument is hinged on two folds – other European countries have done it while others are toying with the idea and secondly since these activities have achieved scale, they must be included.
Such jaded and jaundiced thinking beats the imagination
Its not even a moral issue as Rotus the sometimes over enthusiastic Arise TV reporter argued during a heated session on the Dukes sunmit.
For him, we were being moral for refusing to acknowledge the reality of prostitution since – most men buy sex.
The absurdity of his argument and by extension the NBS beats all sense of logical and rational deduction.
If something is illegal. You cant count it as a legitimate economic activity, I scream.
If my contributions as a drug runner is being acknowledged by the Government via its permutations in reaching a healthy GDP which would help the Governments score card and help it during elections, why arrest me.
This would put the police and other law enforcement bodies in a dillema as the drug peddler being questioned at the airport, will boldly tell you he is contributing to economic activities.
Also other crime categories like armed robbery, ritual killing and human trafficking would fight to scale up, since size is now the major determinant for legitimacy and inclusion
The Challenge we have with people like Rotus and the leadership of the NBS, is that they are prone to ‘lazy Intellectualism’.
They take reports from abroad and swallow it hook line and sinker and arrogantly try to force it on us.
They lack the wherewithal to interogate those reports, question their validity as to its impact on our own system and lastly fail to come up with an indigenous frame work that could also be exported
In their lazinness, they postulate and use their power to force on us very wrong policies simply because – they are doing it in Denmark.
Does Denmark have the kind of instituonal challenges that we face, does Denmark have the weakeend judicial system that we have, does Denmark have the kind of structural leadership failure that we have.
Do we have the kind of inclusive technology that captures all participants that would make for easy tracking, collection and cohesive measurment of such activities.
Also who in Nigeria accepts fully to be involved in sex work.
Those who stand on the street are a futile minority who conduct their business in darkened streets and do not issue receipts or periodic reports to any one talkless of an NBS that is led by tomato heads.
The vast majority of sex workers are embeded in society either as bankers, police women, students, house wives who do not label their work as sex work but ‘runs’.
How do you now track that.
Finally, proceeds from such activities are already in the system as they are not quarantined in boxes labelled – prostitution money, waiting to be thrown into the system once the NBS recognises them.
The prostitute is buyng houses, eating at restaurants, buying clothes at malls, travelling by air, sending her children to school, buying foodstuffs so NBS mumu people, the funds are already in the sytem and are being measured in other classes like Real Estate, Entertainment, health and the rest.
Seeing the 3.4% growth in GDP and the strong showing of sectors like Real Estate as top performers, the Government has given its self an ambitious target on the GDP and an inflation rate it expects to drop to 15% this fiscal year
So its NBS work to guide the government thru accurate reports, well articulated statistics so they can easily gauge their performance as they move
Trying to inflate the GDP with the bogus inclusion of illegal activities is ethically wrong.
It queries our judicial system, throws enforcement into a needless dilemma, empowers criminals, confuses youths and lastly makes the Government look foolish.
Please it is becoming clear that the present crop of leadership at the NBS may have passed their sell-by date or are overwhelmed by the enormity of the task ahead of them and in this regards, government should do something if they are truly serious about meeting their self appointed targets for the economy. Thank you
Come and beat me
Duke of Shomolu
