The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said that the opinion of the few respondents on its data portal cannot be equated to the position of all Nigerians on the issue of the planned introduction of N5,000 notes.
The NBS also said it was incorrect to say it conducted a survey on the issue as no such survey has been conducted.
The bureau’s Assistant Director, Mr Simon Harry who represented the Statistician-General, Dr Yemi Kale at an interactive forum with the media yesterday in Abuja said that “Opinion polls are not surveys and should therefore not be treated as such.
He explained that due to the nature in which this particular opinion poll is being conducted, it is not representative of the Nigerian population and not based on any statistical methods.
“For this reason, the NBS strongly refutes any suggestion by LEADERSHIP Newspaper that a survey was conducted by the NBS to gather data on Nigerians’ opinions on the introduction of the N5,000 note. The general public is therefore to note that the numbers quoted by LEADERSHIP Newspaper are unofficial.”
Harry stated that as a very critical government organisation, it was very necessary for the NBS to come out and clear the air on what that report actually is or how it should be. He maintained that the data on its website from which the report was based was not a survey, but an interactive opinion poll, which did not represent the views of the entire Nigerian populace as portrayed in the said story. “Within our website we have a data portal and this portal from time to time report on certain activities”.
Most of the activities that are reported on the data portal are change from time to time. We posted that portal on the website to keep the public informed about certain emerging national issues. The issue of the N5,000 is an emerging national issue and we put the question there asking the public what their opinion. From the people that respond, which may be 10, eight may say they are against it while two would say they are in favour.
The portal now shows the answer in percentages. That in clear terms does not represent a survey. A survey is something that we take time to plan, design questionnaire, and draw the sample that would be a whole representation of the entire population of the country. And whatever that survey gets at the end of the day forms the view of the entire population,” he said.
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