By Stephen Gbadamosi, Ibadan
The Renewed Hope Global Virtual Conference has expressed gratitude to the Statistician-General of the Federation, Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, for delivering the conference’s first lecture in the new year and educating Nigerians on the importance of statistical data to good governance.
The Conference also had words of praise for the dignitaries that graced the virtual meet.
These include the Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Bola Tinubu, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, who is supervising Minister of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Senator Atiku Bagudu; Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris; Director General, National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Otunba Biodun Ajiboye; the Director General/Chief Executive Officer (DG/CEO), Energy Commission of Nigeria, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi; and the CEO of BEN Television UK, Ambassador Alistar Soyode.
The Virtual Conference, in a statement made available to journalists on Sunday, January 19, by its Chairman/Chief Host, Ambassador Joseph Kolawole Adebola, said the closest the organisation had to Saturday’s event was the previous special guest edition in October 2024, where the Technical Adviser to President Tinubu on Economic and Financial Inclusion, Dr. Nurudeen Zauro, spoke.
It stated: “Prince Adeyemi Adeniran, our special guest yesterday (Saturday), proved his mettle as the Statistician-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
“He spent one solid hour reeling out statistical data about our population, the rate of unemployment, etc. in Nigeria, which had everyone enthralled, including yours truly, so much so that I had to confess he took Nigerians back to school with his out-of-this-world presentation with tonnes of PowerPoint slides of various data, one of which confirmed that our population is between 216 to 220 million and 4.3 million unemployed, etc.
“The presentation yesterday by our special guest fits perfectly into the objectives of the virtual conference which is to inform, educate and enlighten Nigerians and disabuse their minds regarding the warped narratives being bandied daily all over the social media space by enemies of the state, and finally put to bed the perception of some people based on the narratives alluded to above.”
Amb. Adebola said the conference expressed joy at the turnout of key government functionaries at the event.
“Another important highlight of the virtual conference was the array of VVIPs that attended from the Presidency and government, starting with the Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, CON, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye,Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi and Ambassador Alistar Soyode.
“The poignancy of the VVIPs’ attendance is the appearance of Senator Bagudu, Alhaji Idris and Otunba Ajiboye who appeared at our past conferences on June 22nd, and August 31st, 2024, respectively.
“Another very important highlight is the grand attendance of our Grand Patron, Honourable Babatunde Ogala, SAN, Senior Legal Counsel to President Tinubu, who gave a short speech eulogising our special guest for his laudable strides at NBS and especially for his brilliant presentation at the conference which he too admitted ‘sent him to school.’
“He also lauded the team behind the weekly conference for providing a veritable platform for direct engagement between our leaders and Nigerians across the globe as well as countering the malicious and false narratives about Nigeria on social media.”
