Don Tasks FG On Survey Funds

A university teacher, Dr Olusanya Olubusoye has advised the Federal Government to budget more on surveys to enable the citizens be more informed about workings of government.
Olubusoye, a lecturer at the Department of Statistics, University of Ibadan made the call in an interview with The Tide source last Monday in Abuja.
He spoke against the backdrop of the just released Corruption in Nigeria survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The official emphasised the need for the Federal Government to provide adequate funds for NBS, to conduct surveys to fill the gap in the corruption survey.
He said that it was time that the government provided adequate funding for NBS to initiate, design, organise and conduct surveys that would support national development agenda.
He said that the bureau should also conduct more surveys that would support national development agenda such as Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
Olubusoye, who is also the second Vice-President, Nigerian Statistical Association (NSA), said Nigerians needed to be informed on the effect of corruption on the economy. He said that the Federal Government needed to increase the budget for the NBS for it to expand its scope of the surveys to include other variables.
He said that, NSA had been in the forefront of advocating for the use of empirical investigations to understand the scope, dimensions and dynamics of corruption in Nigeria.
He commended the NBS for the recently released Corruption Survey Report.
According to him, the corruption survey will no doubt raise the tempo of debate on the subject from mere rhetoric and presumption, to knowledge and evidence-based. The official, however, raised two fundamental concerns on the report, noting that the survey was donor driven and biased against its own institutions.
“The survey was fully funded by the EU, to what extent does the objectives of the survey relevant to our national interest and pride?
“How sustainable is the survey? When is the next survey, that will enable us to understand the dynamic nature of corruption in Nigeria?
“How long will foreign donors continue to dictate the type of statistics we must produce?’’ he wondered.
“Could it be that the donors were not interested in this?’’ he asked.