Former Kaduna State military administrator, Col. Abubakar Danjiwa Umar, on Saturday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to give more attention to the nagging security challenges in the country.
Umar also asked Buhari to suspend the proposed National Census planned for the country in April, 2023.
The erstwhile military brass and incumbent chairman of the Movement for Unity and Progress, MUP, who said this in a statement. He added that the idea of conducting a census at this prevailing security situation ravaging the country was shocking.
Umar affirmed that, “Nigeria is facing existential challenges caused by insecurity and a collapsing economy, and embarking on a national census now would amount to a misadventure and a waste of scarce resources”.
He advised the Federal Government to focus mainly on securing the nation and conducting a successful 2023 elections.
In his words, “The decision of the FGN to seek and get the approval of the National Council of State to conduct the National census in April 2023 must have come as a great shock to most well-meaning Nigerians.
“A country that is facing existential challenges such as unprecedented level of insecurity, collapsing economy cannot have as one of its priorities, the conduct of a National census”.
In another development, Umar lamented that despite the huge government investment in the water sector and by international organisations, water scarcity had grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
He regretted that the residents of the city do not have clean and portable water amidst the scourging effects of COVID-19 pandemic.