Sign CISON Bill Into Law, NSA Urges Buhari

The Nigerian Statistical Association (NSA) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Chartered Institute of Statisticians of Nigeria (CISON) Bill into law.
The bill has been passed by the National Assembly for more than two years but has not been signed by the President.
The National Secretary of NSA, Dr Olatunji Arowolo, made the call in an interview with newsmen, yesterday, in Lagos.
Arowolo spoke on the sideline of a three-day maiden edition of International Statistical Conference, organised by NSA.
He said that the association would transit from NSA to CISON, once the bill received the endorsement of the president.
“The association is seeking for CISON because we have found out that most people working in the field of statistics are not statisticians.
“For you to be engaged in production of statistics, you have to go through this institute, whether you are a statistician or not; we still have to re-train you.
“It is just like what is obtainable in accounting profession, whereby professionals are chartered and they have a professional body – the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
“Most people don’t have degree in accounting but they are made to go through the institute so that they will be able to practise as an accountant,’’ he said.
Similarly, the official said NSA wanted to have CISON to train statisticians very well because if wrong data is giving, then you will get wrong results.
He, however, advocated autonomy for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), adding that the bureau should be independent.
“It is still under Ministry of Budget and National Planning and that doesn’t secure its autonomy because of that, they are lacking funds.
“If NBS doesn’t have enough funds, how will it process data effectively and achieve its mandate of coordinating statistical activities in the country?”
He said there should be a separate budget line for NBS such as South Africa that had a separate budget for its Bureau of Statistics.