Weeks After, NBS Outage Raises Concerns Of Data Control

The Nigerian Bureau of Statistics has been under lock and key for nearly three weeks since a controversial hack, raising concerns about economic transparency, data control, and shaping of narratives that favor the government. The website has been inaccessible and the Bureau’s social media platforms haven’t posted any new information. 

On December 18, 2024, the Statistician general, Adeniran Adeyemi was alleged to have been picked up  and arrested by the Department of State Security (DSS) over the release of the Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey, which revealed that Nigerians paid an estimated N2.23 trillion in ransom to kidnappers between May 2023 and April 2024. According to the report, 65% of households affected by kidnapping incidents resorted to ransom payments, with an average of N2.67 million paid per incident. The survey recorded approximately 51.89 million crime incidents across Nigerian households, with the North-West region reporting the highest crime rate at 14.4 million cases, followed by the North-Central region with 8.8 million incidents.

The NBS has since denied the report that Adeyemi was arrested but clarified in a statement that he was only invited to respond to questions pertaining to the methodology and data used in the controversial survey report, which he willingly attended.

“The report is not true. I can authoritatively confirm this,” NBS said in a statement.

Coincidentally, after the summon by the DSS, the NBS announced  on X (formerly known  as Twitter), that the agency’s website had been hacked.

Researchers, economists, and others depend on data from the Bureau but it has remained inaccessible to the public since the hack, with the Bureau advising against using any information posted on it until the site is fully restored. The NBS website serves as a crucial online portal for economic indicators, and the current inaccessibility is raising concerns ahead of the scheduled release of December inflation data in mid-January. This data is essential for the Central Bank of Nigeria’s first policy meeting of 2025, set for January 27-28.

The NBS has already missed the opportunity to publish reports on capital flow into Nigeria for the third quarter of 2024, as well as updates on the country’s local and foreign debt for the same period. The website also hosts decades of important economic data, all of which are currently unavailable. Additionally, the NBS’s X account, which has served as an alternative information channel, has remained silent since it announced the hack.

While the specifics of the attack have not been disclosed and the agency’s operations continue, economists warn that the website’s continued blackout could significantly hinder access to vital data, potentially affecting economic analysis and decision-making.

The coincidental hacking of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) website after the alleged arrest of the SG has also raised suspicions among Nigerians, with many questioning the motives behind these events.

The National Bureau of Statistics @NBS_Nigeria ‘s website has been down for more than 3 weeks since it was hacked.

3 freaking weeks and no one has found a solution? it annoys me so much how nonchallant our public sector is… getting basic stuff done is asking for too much https://t.co/YOumadiXl2

— Ayantola Maximus (@ayantolamaximus) January 5, 2025

Many believe that the NBS website was deliberately taken down by members of the government in retaliation to the survey’s findings, which sparked controversy and highlighted the incompetence of security forces in managing the country’s security challenges.

A day after a damning security report was released by NBS, they claim their site was hacked!

Are you thinking what I am thinking?

— oseni rufai (@ruffydfire) December 19, 2024

Critics of the government saw the timing of the arrest and website hack as too coincidental, fueling suspicions that the data and public awareness generated by the survey may have displeased certain powers that be. As a result, many Nigerians now question the integrity of the situation, with some speculating that these actions may have been part of a larger attempt to suppress access to data and control public narratives that don’t favor the government of President Bola Tinubu.