The director general of the national population commission, Mr Jamin Zubema has called for the use of population data in combating issues of insecurity in the country.
At a meeting with participants of the Defense Intelligence School in Abuja, Mr Zubema said that an in-depth understanding of the nation’s population will help in reducing to the barest minimum the current spate of insecurity experienced in some parts of the country.
The population commission’s boss identified the nation’s current security challenges to include; “militancy in the Niger-delta, Boko Haram in parts of the northeast and FCT surroundings, boundary disputes in some many parts of the country, conflicts between farmers and herdsmen.”
All of which he claims “require the need to understand our population dynamics in terms of the fertility, mortality and migration.”
“Similarly, worsening unemployment and ignorance reinforce poverty and they pose serious security challenges” he added.
Mr Zubema also noted that “data from the commission on occupation, education and structure of the population, will help the government to take informed decisions in the process of planned interventions in these areas.”
On his part, the deputy director at the defense intelligence agency, Mr Wolu Okwuwolu says that data provided by the national population commission will, to a large extent, help its participants better understand how to provide reports on national security.