CENSUS: EVEN GOD IS INTERESTED!

KINGDOM PERSPECTIVE
with Remi Akano; e-mail: remiakanosr@believeandrepent.com

When in the countdown to the 2006 National Population and Housing Census, Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State addressed citizens of the state in a radio and television broadcast, he reminded me of a story told at a marriage counselling seminar by my dear pastor, Rev Mrs Funmi Oluyede.

“The story is told”, she had begun with a smile, “of a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary. In the midst of it all they brought out the wedding album to relive the nostalgia of a glorious day. They excitedly went through from album leaf to album page and told the children who-was-who at the wedding. As they closed the last page, their youngest child remarked: ‘I can’t believe that that was daddy on his wedding day; he looked so very serious all through.’ To which the father replied: marriage is serious business!

I had remarked then in an unpublished article that I would be surprised if one of Governor Bola Tinubu’s children didn’t ask their father a similar question after that broadcast. Neither his demeanor nor his rhetoric left anyone in doubt that, as far as he was concerned, census is serious business.

You may recall, if you were in Lagos, that for the man who loves to be characterized as the last man standing, the census was such a serious business that he had all of us gated for all of five days. He wanted to ensure that we were counted right here where we receive our nurture, rather than travel to some far-flung places we love to call home. It must have seemed an overkill then particularly with those, “IF YOU GO, NO SHOW” media campaigns which threatened to deny those who fail to be counted in Lagos, access to government services. But in the aftermath of the provisional figures of the exercise recently released, the man certainly cannot be accused of paranoia.

With the benefit of hindsight, the attitude of the government, as articulated in the rebuttal of the figures ‘allocated’ to Lagos State in the National Populations Commission results qualifies to be described as proactive. Said the Lagos government in a publication titled, The Falsification of Lagos Census Figures, “For Lagos State government, we took the exercise extremely seriously. We mobilized all commissioners, special advisers, permanent secretaries, directors, teachers and a lot of civil servants to manage the enumeration exercise state-wide. We also had the notion based on history that NPC might deliberately under report Lagos census figure. We therefore conducted a parallel census. The tactic is simple. TRUST BUT VERIFY…”

In the event, because of the seriousness with which the exercise was approached, the state has been able to provide scientific evidence that its population was much more than NPC’s 9million persons, positing instead that more than17million persons live and or work in Lagos

So, Tinubu’s seriousness is paying off. The state has possibly a cast-iron case to take to the census tribunal whenever it is constituted. And ultimately, perhaps Nigeria would sometimes in the near future end up with a recount that could lead to useful demographic data – all because of this seriousness; never mind the initial reaction from NPC.

But this columnist’s interest in this matter goes beyond the probability of eventually getting figures upon which socio-economic planning can be based. My interest is the Kingdom angle. Ah yes, there is a Kingdom angle to every issue under the sun and we can only ignore this angle to our peril!

To begin with, the people governments set out to count are made in the image and likeness of God and he is interested in what you do with them, to them and about them. Next, censuses predate today’s social, economic and political milieu and like everything else we do God is interested in its whys and the “hows.”

David, the king and priest described in the bible as a man after God’s heart got into trouble with the heavenly father and was severely punished on two major occasions. One involved adultery and murder; the other was over a census! That’s how serious a census can be.

As you may know there are a number of census exercises recorded in the bible. Easily the best known is that ordered by Caesar Augustus, emperor of the then Roman Empire, which led to the Lord Jesus Christ’s birth in the undignifying but prophesy-fulfilling ambience of a manger. The King James Version of the bible actually described the activity by its goal - tax - hence it reads: “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” Many other translations however directly identified the exercise as census. The Good News Bible, for instance rendered Luke 2:1 like this: “At that time Emperor Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Roman Empire.” But whatever the motive, the scriptures were fulfilled by its peculiar organization. You never know what God would do even with a census!

There were five other censuses recorded. Four months after the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, a head count of all aged 20 years and above took place at the Israelites’ camp in Sinai. The population was 603,550 (see Exodus 38:26). This was followed by another just before the Jews entered Canaan. A marginal decrease in the population was recorded with the figure at 601,730 (Numbers 26:51). Both were carried out with instructions to Moses from God.

The third census ordered by King David showed an astronomical increase in population. Even with the exclusion of the Levites and the Benjamites 1,300,000 people were enumerated (see 2Sam. 24:9; 1Chronicles 21:5).

The other two censuses recorded were Solomon’s head count of foreigners recording a total of 153,600 able-bodied men (2Chronicles 2:17, 18); while 42,360 was the figure of Israelites who returned from exile at the time of Ezra (Ezra 2:64).

But it is to David’s census we must turn for some relevant lessons on the importance of the motive of Su’maila Makama’s on-going assignment because it provides a good study in the repercussions of an ill-motivated head count.

David without ascertaining God’s direction ordered a census NOT of all over 20 years but of all who could bear arms irrespective of their age. Thus his motive was to know how physically strong the nation of Israel was under him! For a King who had seen God at work without regard for numbers, this was the height of distrust! Was he hoping to prosecute the next war by the power and might of a physical army? Matthew Henry in Commentary wrote: That which was the worst thing in numbering the people was that David did it in the pride of his heart…

David had the census conducted even against wiser counsel from his advisers. The Message Bible tells the story in these words: …David gave orders to Joab and the army officers under him, "Canvass all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and get a count of the population. I want to know the number." But Joab resisted the king: "May your GOD multiply people by the hundreds right before the eyes of my master the king, but why on earth would you do a thing like this?" Nevertheless, the king insisted, and so Joab and the army officers left the king to take a census of Israel. 2Samuel 24: 2-4.

Although David realized his error soon after the exercise, he had to choose one of three punishments for this grievous act of pride: "Do you want three years of famine in the land, or three months of running from your enemies while they chase you down, or three days of an epidemic on the country?” David would rather fall into the hand of God than that of his enemies and he told God so. In the end a plague came on the land and 70,000 people died in one day before God ordered a stop to the punishment.

I like to believe that the presidential motive for Census 2006 was noble; that it was towards garnering accurate statistics for national socio-economic planning and that it wasn’t just to add a census to his list of “achievements”, as has been insinuated in certain circles. Although, the decision to remove ethnicity and religion from the survey did call into question the motivation of many in position of influence. Also, the dismissal of protests from groupings in the country whose population we would never get to know certainly detracts from the exercise. The provisional results have unfortunately not helped matters at all.

One other aspect of the 2006 census centred on the “hows” of it. Even David’s unholy census was well organized as could be seen from 2Samuel 5-8. Could the same be said of Census 2006? The newspapers were full of reports that testified to the contrary. 72 hours to its take-off workers brought into Lagos from other parts of the country were living in inhuman conditions. One report spoke about up to 40 persons accomodated in a room; no water to flush toilets; expensive food etc. So disillusioned was one of them that she told The Sun newspaper: “The way the whole thing is going, it is going to affect the whole exercise. If we are finally going to do the work, it is going to be under enormous stress…Many of us are suffering from catarrh, cough and malaria because we are kept outside both day and night …There are no tables and chairs for us to work. We will have a lot of reports to write and maps to work with. Is it under this condition? We will do the work anyhow…”

The more grievous of the complaints then, from the standpoint of this column, was the treatment of the women among the workers. The Sun quoted one Mrs Christiana Agbita as lamenting: “For goodness sake, we are women; we are mothers, yet these people are forcing us to take our baths in full glare of strange men who are not our husbands…”

I had in my unpublished article then wrote: ‘God forbid that we should invite any negative consequences over our nation just because of a serious business handled with the wrong motives and without the seriousness it deserves.”

Thank God, the consequences have so far been and hopefully would remain in the area of strong rhetoric. But whenever there is a recount as it seems inevitable, we must never forget that census is not just serious business to governors like Tinubu; even God, the heavenly father is interested in the ‘whys’ and the ‘hows’ of it!