Kwakwanso tells NPC boss, Odimegwu: Your appointment was a mistake

For rubbishing the 2006 census entirely, the Kano State Governor, Alhaji Rabiu Kwakwanso, on Friday descended heavily on the Chairman of the National Population Commission, Festus Odimegwu, describing his appointment as a mistake.
Kwakwanso contended that rather than condemning what his predecessor had done, he should have been planning on how to improve on that come 2016 when another census is due.
He spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.
According to Governor Kwakwanso, the NPC boss is not qualified to preside over the population commission, saying he spent the better part of his working career in the brewery hence, must have been under the influence of alcohol when rubbishing the 2006 census.
His words: “We are not happy about that appointment and think that it was a mistake.
“Festus shouldn’t be there in the first place.
“He had only one thing and it is in the alcoholic industry, all his life.
“And my guess is that he’s taking a lot of his products and that is why we feel that his appointment is a mistake because he cannot be the chairman of NPC and at the same time be attacking what his predecessor had done.
“Even if it was wrong, he now has the good opportunity to correct.
“But instead of  doing that, he has been running around to discredit the 2006 census.
“That means he is trying to kill that one.
“And in our own opinion, as long as he is there, he has already killed the 2016 census before it even started.
“And I believe that is not correct and that is not fair.”
Recalling how he met first met Odimegwu, the Kano State governor said: “I just met that man when I was Minister of Defence.
“We had a military occasion in the East and just about when we were about to finish, protocol came and told me that President Olusegun Obasanjo had another thing to do and I followed him and just went there and saw a big brewery.
“And they said he was the head but the way he was talking then, I do know immediately after the appointment that there was a mistake there.”