May 20, 2018

The Nigerian Statistical Association (NSA) has again appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Chartered Institute of Statisticians of Nigeria (CISON) Bill into law.

The bill has already been passed by the National Assembly more than three years ago, but has not been signed into law by the President.

The First National Vice President of NSA, Dr Godday Ebuh, who made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuj on Sunday, said that the Bill was one of those that received attention in the seventh senate.

Once the bill receives the endorsement of the President, the association will be able to transit from NSA to CISON, thereby making it a professional body with powers to regulate the work of statisticians.

“In signing the bill – they were about 46 bills that were passed in 7th senates – CISON happened to be among them.

“It was also among the six Bills that were selected to the Ministry of Justice for advice.

“We are working and liaising with the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly to ensure that President endorses it,’’ he said.

Ebuh called for the reintroduction of statistics in secondary schools to help groom more statisticians in the country.

“We want statistics to be reintroduced in the secondary schools but we have started now with the undergraduates with the maiden edition of the competition.

“We will gradually move to secondary schools.

“We have advocated the teaching of statistics in secondary schools to encourage youths to study the course in institutions of higher learning.

“The association is working toward re-introducing the subject in the secondary school curriculum,’’ he said.

The Nigerian Statistical Association (NSA) was founded in 1976 as a non-profit making professional body comprising of Statisticians, Economists, Planners, Demographers, Analysts and corporate organisations with interest in Statistics.

The Association engages in generating interest in Statistics, professional development, retraining of users and producers of statistics.

It provides a sound information base to enhance policy formulation and strategic planning in the public and private sectors of the country’s economy.