ECONOMISTS and data experts are worried at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) mode of data publicity, questioning the rationale behind the agency’s resort to emails and leaks, rather than its official website.
The NBS is accused of allegedly leaking its data to select media organisations or sending data to some of them through emails, rather than post them on its official website. For instance, ahead of the release of its rebased January 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI), media organisations were checking its websites regularly to know what the rebased inflation rate would look like.
On February 18, 2024, however, The Nation and ThisDay newspapers had the rebased inflation rates on their cover pages. As of 8am of February 18, the rebased figure was not on the NBS website. Yet two national newspapers had it on their cover pages.
When Economy Post enquired, NBS said it was unaware how the two newspapers got to know the inflation figure of 24.48 percent. In fact, Economy Post was later told that the number was “leaked by people in the presidency.”
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Similarly, on March 17 – the day meant for the release of the February 2024 inflation data- the NBS had no such data on its website as at 3pm. Yet Bloomberg, an international business newspaper, reported it at 2.57pm.
On enquiry, Economy Post was told that the NBS sent the data to the news organisation via an email. The NBS has, however, denied this. But questions are being asked how Bloomberg got to have the inflation data before every other news organisation.
What is fishy?
This is a clear departure from the past practice where data on inflation to unemployment were posted directly at the NBS website. Everybody – including non-journalists and researchers – could access the data as at then.
It has now become a common practice for the NBS to miss data deadlines without offering explanations, keeping researchers and media organisations guessing and waiting.
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“The NBS data are now being politicised,” said a researcher and university lecturer, Dr Agu Odu. “I remember during the time of Dr Yemi Kale when data release followed a calendar, such that anyone would know when inflation or GDP figures would be released. If you want to destroy a nation, just mess with two things: data and education.”
For Associate Professor of Economics, Dr Bona Nwanze, the trend was dangerous. “The politicisation of data is somethng we should never, ever do. Remember that recently, the NBS changed its unemployment methodology. Nobody knew why this was done. The data eventually fell from over 30 percent to five percent or so after the computation. However, does any Nigerian believe that the unemployment rate is five percent? This is how you destroy data integrity,” he said.
A doctorate degree srudent at Ahmadu Bello University, who wished to be adde=ressed simply as Ms Aisha, said there was every indication that the government was beginning to interfere in the work of the NBS.
“They tried that under Buhari but it did not totally succeed. But it appears that this government is determined to change public perception about it by tampering with data,” she said.
NBS removes crime report from website days after hack, SSS invitation of CEO
Economy Post recently reported that the NBS removed its own report entitled, ‘Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey 2024,’ from website days after hack and the reported invitation of its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Adeyemi Adeniran, by the State Security Service (SSS).
The NBS had released the crime report on December 17, 2024. It disclosed that Nigerians paid an estimated N2.3 trillion as ransom to kidnappers between May 2023 and April 2024, noting that 65 percent of households affected by kidnapping had to pay ransoms to secure the release of victims. On average, each household paid N2.67 million per incident.
The report further revealed that 51,887,032 crime incidences were experienced by households, with the North-West having 14,402,254 reported cases -highest in the country.
The report further said the most common reasons for not reporting crimes included a lack of confidence in law enforcement and the belief that police intervention would not result in meaningful action.
“At the individual level, 21.4 per cent of Nigerians reported being victims of crime, and the most common crime was phone theft (13.8%).” The report further said that about 90 percent of the victims of phone thefts reported to the police, and only 50 percent of the victims expressed satisfaction with police responses.
“Nationwide, an estimated 1.4 million experienced sexual offences, which occurred mostly in someone else’s home (27.7%), followed by the victim’s home (22.2%).”
The report also disclosed that 13 percent of the rural population believed they could be victims of crime. Only 7 percent in urban areas admitted that they could be victims in urban areas.
The report further noted that about four out of 10 households had at least one interaction with state or local security forces within the reference period. One out of two households had contact with the police, with 25.7 percent reporting the incidence of crime to the security agency after experiencing crimes.
However, only 42.9 persons who reported livestock theft cases to the police were satisfied with the way they were handled. Similarly, only 42.4 percent of persons who reported crop theft were satisfied with the police handling of the matter.
On December 19, BusinessDay reported that Mr Adeniran, who is the Statistician-General of the Federation, was invited and interrogated by the SSS over the report.
However, the BusinessDay’s source said he was not arrested but was interrogated.
“The Statistician General wasn’t arrested. Although people in authority are not happy about the report, but claims that the SG was arrested are false. He was only invited for questioning and was allowed to go that same yesterday.”
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On that same day, the NBS reported that its website was hacked.
“This is to inform the public that the NBS website has been hacked, and we are working to recover it. Please disregard any message or report posted until the website is fully restored,” NBS said on its X handle.
The NBS’ website is now back, but the crime report is no more.
