Why Buhari’s attempts to conduct population census failed’

Computer mogul, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, has offered insights into how several attempts by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari to conduct a population census for the country failed before handing over to President Bola Tinubu.

Ekeh, Chairman of Zinox Group, made the revelation while warning a group of his mentees recently to guard against blackmailers and petition writers who deploy crooked tactics to undermine competitors to gain undeserved business advantages.

According to him, competitors flooded the Federal Government and its agencies/parastatals with numerous petitions. By the time the immediate past government finished addressing these petitions and awarded the contract for the supply of computers needed to conduct the census, it was too late for the Buhari administration to proceed with the project.

Ekeh said this was why the last administration had to hand over the project to the then-incoming Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
Ekeh alleged that a computer company boss was the blackmailer who deployed the services of two popular law firms owned by prominent Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and some social media blogs to execute intensive but frivolous petitions, litigations, and media blackmail.

Their nefarious activities, Ekeh continued, forced the Buhari administration to delay awarding the contract to Zinox in time.

He told his mentees that Buhari found the petitions meritless and proceeded to award the contract to Zinox. The contract was executed within the agreed timeline, but it was too late for Buhari to continue with the census.

“The new fraud is corporate and personality blackmail, which my companies and I have fallen victim to. I am sure you’ve read in newspapers where CEOs of responsible corporations in Nigeria are tagged as fraudsters.

“This is the work of blackmailers who partner with a few blogs, engage some innocent respected law firms for hype, and involve a few government officials to achieve their objectives of destroying corporate and personal reputations.

“These negative online materials are then lifted by Google, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms so that when people search for your organisation or personal name, you are seen as a crook.

“This is intended to destroy your brand and affect your credit rating globally.

“In some cases, they sue you in multiple courts in Nigeria to generate noise and create content to continue uploading on various social media platforms.

“Having set this platform against you, your competitors leverage it to blackmail you.

“In some cases, they secure a fiat from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to create the impression that the Federal Government is suing you for fraud, allegations they cannot prove in court.

“My integrated technology group is the largest on the continent, and this is why we have the second-highest credit rating in the tech sector in Africa. What this means is that if you award us a contract of over $5 billion, we don’t need to borrow to execute it because we are trusted.

“In 38 years of tech entrepreneurship, we have done a global turnover of over $23.7 billion without borrowing a kobo from any financial institution in the world, and we do not owe anyone,” Ekeh stated.

He said that it was only after much delay that Buhari ignored the blackmailers and awarded his firm the contract.

“So, a few days after, President Muhammadu Buhari, based on submissions at the Federal Executive Council meeting, approved that the contract be awarded to Zinox Technologies Ltd based on competence, capacity, and experience. And it was awarded to Zinox Technologies after months of blackmail to eliminate us from the deal.

“We delivered the project on time as per our terms of engagement, but it was too late for the previous administration to conduct the digital census.

“What it means is that these blackmailers, with the support of people like the two SANs, caused the lack of credible data to move the country forward, as all the equipment procured for the census is lying wasted in warehouses nationwide.

“That’s shameless Nigerians for you, and they walk the streets as free men to this day.

“This is the cause of the Nigeria digital census project delay till date, and equipment worth over N300 billion is wasting in warehouses because my competitors and their sponsors at the highest level used them to secure a fiat against my name, my wife, and my companies to tag us as frauds.

“By their action, Zinox almost lost a digital census contract worth over $250 million, despite being the most qualified.”

Ekeh urged President Tinubu and the Attorney General/Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, to probe the delay in conducting the census and avoid being derailed by the same blackmailers and their cohorts.

Turning to his mentees, the computer guru said: “Please, as stakeholders and future Nigerian trillionaires, learn from my experience, but you must not dine with blackmailers, as technologies shall soon delete them from the tech ecosystem.”

Advising the mentees not to lose hope in the Nigerian economy, he projected that the country shall start returning to a comfortable zone from the third quarter of 2025.