The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has identified statistical data analysis and its scientific use as necessary and very important for successful implementation of government policies and programs as well as effective service delivery.
Aregbesola, who made this remark during the weekend while receiving officials of the Professional Statistician Society of Nigeria who paid him a courtesy visit at his Abuja Office, added that this would ultimately promote good governance in Nigeria.
He explained that his knowledge of and use of statistical data tremendously helped him as an active player at different levels of administration in life, the reason he, as Minister, is able to create three passport Centers (Ikoyi-Festac, Alausa, and Amuwo Odofin centres) in Lagos which helped in the decongestion of existing facilities and the reduction of passport racketeering in Nigeria.
He said that given this intervention, it was unfortunate that many who do not want to follow laid down rules and procedures still land themselves in the hands of unscrupulous people who extort money from them, a statement by Mr Afonja Fatai Ajibola, Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Interior said on Sunday.
The Minister also recalled that it was because he imbibed statistical data benefits that he could pioneer the establishment of the State Bureau of Statistics when he was Governor of Osun and appointed the first State Statistician-General.
“I find Statistics useful and result-oriented; and I commend it to industrialists, entrepreneurs, politicians, leaders of communities, Local Governments, States, and nations.”
He equally observed that “It is at the Federal level that there is substantial interest in statistics in the country.”
Aregbesola promised to work with the Professional Statistician Society of Nigeria, despite the short term he has left, and expressed his delight that the National Assembly recently successfully passed a law that would soon transform the organization into a Chartered Institute, which he believes would augur well for the organisation.
Earlier, the leader of the visiting team, Professor Waheed Yahya, said their organization is a body of professional Statisticians responsible for engaging in statistical research that would assist policymakers in government, industries, and non-governmental organizations in the nation’s development.
He further said they also train and mentor younger ones in the field of statistical research in the country.
Professor Yahya disclosed that the purpose of the visit was to congratulate the Minister on the series of transformations he brought to the Ministry of Interior and further explore possible areas of cooperation as a lover of statistics.
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