Oblee delayed is not Oblee denied
Nigeria may finally be ready for its first census since 2006
Good morning, Big Brains. Today is officially Day 7 of me fighting for my life because of this rubbish flu that has decided to feel at home in my body. I hope you’re having a better day.
Margaret
Word count: ~ 1,200
Reading time ~ 7 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
Nigeria may finally be ready for its first census since 2006
Nigerian lawmakers are finally giving pedophiles the treatment they deserve
The Big Deal
Nigeria may finally be ready for its first census since 2006
The ‘06 babies are making money, finding love and flooding your TikTok timeline with OOTD videos, and we wish we could say Nigeria has evolved at the same pace.
In 2006, there was a nationwide census that was supposed to be just one of many to come, but the country seems to be stuck in some alternate universe where men compete with snails.
After years of stalling, promising and disappointing, we have reasons to believe that the Tinubu-led administration might actually pull this off. On Tuesday, October 21, the Senate confirmed Dr Aminu Yusuf as Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), alongside two Federal Commissioners, Joseph Haruna Kigbu from Nasarawa State and Tonga Betara Bularafa from Yobe State.
According to the lawmakers, the nominees showed up, got grilled, and passed the test without any record of criminal complaints, scandals, or missing paperwork — a subtle way of reassuring you that we’re not working with forged certificates this time.
The chamber agreed with the nominations with a unanimous “aye.” We know it’s not the greenest light ever, but as far as the country’s next census goes, this is as green as it gets.
Why is this a big deal?
The national census conversation has popped up a couple of times this year. In February, President Tinubu gave a tiny peek into his plans for the next census. And in true Tinubu fashion, those plans came with a “renewed” twist. He said that biometric capturing was going to be the method of the next headcount and also revealed that his administration had already purchased 760,000 tablets to do the job.
But it’s been almost radio silence since then, and we’re guessing that this could have something to do with funding. After the President’s announcement, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, added that Nigeria will be seeking support from development partners whenever the president puts a date to the census because “40% of the funding for the 2006 census came from development partners.”
There are many reasons why seeking handouts for a census is a shame, but we’ll start with the two obvious ones. Firstly, we are supposedly the African giant and shouldn’t be caught dead seeking external funds to do something as basic as a national census. Secondly, foreign aid is drying up faster than the Sahara these days, and Nigeria of all countries knows this.
It also doesn’t help that Nigerians are still owed answers from 2022. Former President Muhammadu Buhari promised Nigerians a digital census and set aside ₦178.09 billion to pull it off. But nobody knows how that went, or what the money was spent on.
While it’s great to finally have something close to an update regarding the next census, we’ll still ask that you manage your expectations.
Nigerian lawmakers are finally giving pedophiles the treatment they deserve
We don’t know what was in the Senate air yesterday, but we hope it stays there forever. After years of working with minimal punishment and inadequate laws, your lawmakers have finally decided to give pedophiles the next thing close to the hellfire they deserve.
In a rare show of sanity unity, the Senate unanimously passed a historic bill that makes life imprisonment the ultimate punishment for anyone found guilty of defiling a minor. The bill also leaves no room for fines or mercy.
The lawmaker we have to thank for this important bill is Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, who represents Ekiti Central. He explained that the amendment isn’t just a random move; it is part of a larger plan to strengthen child protection laws and eliminate gender bias in prosecuting sexual offences.
For you to understand how major this is, you need to know that the law we were working with only sentenced criminals charged with defilement to a five-year jail term. To go from that to life imprisonment is not beans and we rate it like mad.
The Senate also decided to step fully into its feminist bag by proposing other gender laws and amendments. For example, if all goes well, anyone found guilty of forcing another person (male or female) into sex without consent will face a minimum of 10 years imprisonment, which isn’t always the case in some Nigerian states.
The new clause states clearly that “Any person who detains a man or boy, a girl or a woman against his or her will in any premises in order to have unlawful carnal knowledge of him or her… commits a felony and attracts a minimum jail term of 10 years, on conviction.”
But that feminist bag started to sag a little after religion and abortion entered the chat. The Senate also attempted to address certain abortion clauses, but the conversation hit a roadblock after things got super intense. However, there might still be a tiny light at the end of the tunnel as the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has decided to send the clause back to the Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights for fine-tuning. The committee is expected to report back in two weeks.
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, never one to give up a good fight, tried to advocate harder for the abortion bill after the debate was shut down, but Adams Oshiomhole stopped her before she could even finish, raising a point of order to remind his “distinguished sister” that “rules are rules,” and the Senate President backed him up.
So, while some wins are already in order, and some are still unfolding, we can collectively agree that it’s nice to see Nigerian lawmakers work in the people’s interest for once.
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