Nigeria's population myth revisited - Akin-Olugbade

 
By Olusunmade Akin-Olugbade

So much had been said about the above, and by now we know that they can no longer be kept under the hat. I have decided to limit my analysis to 3 federating States in Nigeria, Lagos, Kano and Oyo. Let's collocate the population figures.

According to the 2006 federal 'population allocation':

LAGOS: 9,013,534.
KANO:   9,383,682.
OYO:      5,591,589.
source: National Bureau of Statistics.

I've said it several times hitherto that demography-wise, people settle around the coastal areas. However, Nigeria is the only exception in the world! Well, let's leave population allocation, and let's consider the actual number of taxpayers resident in these states in 2015:

LAGOS: 4,607,800
KANO:      281,192
OYO:         350,411
Source: The Joint Tax Board.

Finally let us consider the 2015 Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) statistics:

LAGOS: N268.0B
KANO:     N13.7B
OYO:        N16.3B
Source: BudgIT

Other publicly available information like the records of waste generated, primary school enrolment, etc., all point to the same pattern that puts a big question mark on the population figures.
I wouldn't bother carrying out relative analysis of the above data, but I am happy to leave this with the public, and encourage them to think about it, and reach their own conclusions.