By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AS the economy bites harder, Africa Polling Institute, API, Tuesday, urged government at all levels to make use of data for planning, policy making and implementation.

Executive Director API, Prof.Bell Ihua made the call at a workshop tagged ‘The Use of Social Cohesion Data in Enhancing National Policies and Programmes and Promoting Effective Media Reportage’, and supported by Ford Foundation.

The Africa Polling Institute (API), an independent, non-profit opinion research think-tank.

The workshop tagged is “The Use of Social Cohesion Data in Enhancing National Policies and Programmes and Promoting Effective Media Reportage’.

He spoke passionately on the importance of the findings by API and added that the Nigeria Social Cohesion data should be used by government and not to allow remain stuck and fallow in the shelves.

He said: “We want the government to be aware because by being aware, they can now use this data for their policy and planning.

“So it is for us to make use of this data we share with the government so that the government can begin to do what it needs to do.

“We want the social cohesion data to permeate the society, such that public institutions are integrating it in their policy and programme planning, and media practitioners are engaging in socially-cohesive news reportage.”

However, he disclosed that the indicators in API’s findings include lack of cohesion (insecurity , social injustice, gender imbalance, lack of public trust), which had negative impact on overall development across the country.

“One of the first major finding API noted is the fact that citizens have very little trust for the government, governors and public institutions.

“The second big issue we found is now that citizens are united in a shared struggle. You know, we didn’t use to have this before, but the data shows that citizens are united in shared struggle.”

In a remark, member, Board of Trustees, BoT, API, Dr Soji Adeniyi, said API has been gathering the data since 2019, which also had changed over the years, and he pointed out that it is high time the government start working with the data in order to address issues on social cohesion.

“The goal is for us to begin to tackle the issue of social cohesion from an understanding of data perspective.

“Its not enough for us as a country to think that perception is everything. Perception has its place and scientific data has its place.

“We have been gathering this data since 2019 and it has been changing year after year based on the perception of what is going on within the country.

“We felt it is time to start sharing this data so that those institutions that the government constitutionally has put together to address those challenges will rise up to the challenge”, Adeniyi added.

The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Successory Nigeria Limited, Dr Steve Ogidan, spoke in the importance of using social cohesion data by the government to address the challenges in the the country among different populations.