HURIWA faults NBS on unemployment data

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, faulted the recent unemployment statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The agency had said the country recorded a dramatic drop from 33.1 per cent reported in March 2021 to 4.1 per cent for the first quarter of 2023.

Reacting, the group’s national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, alleged breach of scientific methodology and existential and real time facts in the whole process.

He argued that the publication was to get a quick response to the groundswell of concerns, consternation and worries of millions of Nigerians about the high cost of living and inflation, created by the upward review in the pump price of petrol.

HURIWA claimed that the work is not independent of influences from the Presidency.

Onwubiko alleged that the NBS was once tackled by the immediate past administration for “boldly relying on credible facts and figures to draw up conclusions on the unemployment or poverty related data” about the nation and citizenry.

The organisation claimed: “Appearance of this political piece of jaundiced propaganda by Tinubu’s government through a contrived unemployment data is far removed from the realities of life in Nigeria of today.”