Professor Joy Chioma Nwabueze, Nigeria’s first female Professor of Statistics, has criticized the Federal Government for ignoring expert advice from statisticians. She said this failure is hurting the country’s development, planning, resource sharing, and even the election system.

Speaking during the 58th Inaugural Lecture at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Abia State, Professor Nwabueze said that not using statistics properly has made elections less reliable and even led to fraud in some cases.

She explained that in countries like the United States and the UK, governments rely heavily on data and statistics to make decisions. But in Nigeria, the government doesn’t pay enough attention to statistics, which affects everything—from homes to big government projects.

“If our government listens to statisticians and uses proper data, Nigeria will do much better,” she said.

Professor Nwabueze also pointed out problems in Nigeria’s voting process, like cases where the number of votes counted is more than the number of registered voters. She believes these issues can be fixed by using accurate statistics.

She shared that her colleagues from the University of Ibadan studied the last election and found major differences between the official voter numbers and what actually happened.

She also mentioned that the government depends too much on figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, which haven’t brought real change.

Recalling her own experience, she said that during a past election in Abia State, she refused to accept fake results as a Returning Officer. As a result, some people tried to attack her, and army officers had to protect her.

Professor Nwabueze called for more careful and honest use of data in Nigeria, especially in elections, so that the country can move forward.