Just a few days ago, my attention was drawn to a poster presentation at a global conference on animal health innovation that was organized in Rome. The poster had a screaming header, very catchy and simply titled “Did you know?” It was printed in white texts on a sky blue shaded background, and no matter the hurry, visitors to the poster exhibition stands were said to be attracted to it.

The photo clips I saw testified to the compelling attraction, in what appeared similar to a television’s “breaking news”. But what did it crusade? The whole of Africa was approximated to have 30, 000 Veterinarians and a bit more than 130, 000 VPPs, then followed by the Asian figures on the next line. I ran my eyes probingly on the poster for the source or references to which those figures were attributed, there was none. This statistic was certainly not backed up by facts in the same way most data on other subject matters are flawed and yet brazenly flaunted at will and at us.

Surprisingly, this poster was a bit of an improvement over what was available on Meta AI when I tried to benchmark. Despite a caveat that the numbers are estimates, and may not reflect the current actual number of practicing veterinary doctors in Africa, the shortfall was disquieting. It reported a paltry 20, 000 Veterinarians for our mother Africa and to my wildest imagination traced its source to the World Organization of Animal Health (WOAH). It further claimed that the highest numbers were in five countries, with Egypt allocated a bit over 5,000 veterinarians, and South Africa, over 3,000 veterinarians.

My dear country Nigeria got allocated just over 2,000 veterinarians, and I chuckled knowing the incorrectness of such a claim. I am a member of the governing board of the Veterinary Council of Nigeria, and can attest for free that we had long passed the 11, 000 mark of registered veterinarians. When they now reported 1, 500 for Ethiopia, and just over a thousand for Kenya, I knew those who compiled the entire figures lived in the past or were mere jokers. Come to think of it, who will bell the cat as the custodian of the accurate records of the veterinary service workforce, on a regional basis if WOAH does not have? For sure Farm Alert through this regional newsletter has a job well cut out.

Then, going back to the poster and in an unsavory comparison, pairing orange with apple, Asia was claimed to have “around 520, 000 veterinarians” and “over 900, 000 vpps” (sic), and I wondered the intention of the researcher who made the presentation. It became very apparent that the poster was never subjected to a crucible test of reviews before permission to exhibit. Even if there is no mandate authorizing the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to deal with people of genuine ignorance, there could be a deliberate criminal mischief over abuse or misuse of figures that should interest them in my view.

The intention to confuse people through corrupt and sometimes unreasonable figures for pecuniary benefits might not be far-fetched, beyond the gain of cheap publicity. The traffic of people to such infamous corners of the exhibition hall usually ranks high, predominated by persons who would always love to believe anything that fits their stereotypes. The age-long prejudices that Africa should crawl when others are running, without caring to know that times are changing for good. Our peculiarity in Africa suits us and would never fit any other continent.

We are proud without apologies for not meeting the expectations of others, and would also not succumb to ill motivated narration that attempts to second rate us in anyway. Some research outcomes are known for what we refer to in Nigeria as wuruwuru to the answers, particularly when their funders have ulterior intentions to achieve a predetermined objective. In such cases, figures suffer mutilation and intellectual corruption holds sway.

Again, on the poster I did not see the figures of Vets and Para-vets for the entire global north! I wouldn’t know if they were imagined to be the gold standards that others must follow. We know the recent rush of UK agents scouting for so many Veterinarians in Nigeria and some other African countries to service their meat inspection and other public health concerns.

Interestingly, it is not just at conferences that people take erroneous statistical advantage of others, particularly those they play superiority over by bandying figures anyhow, and almost all times they go free and unchallenged. Figures when accurate are powerful tools for developmental planning, and financial budgeting, while data collection is science and also an art that’s worth learning. Apart from the tradition of acknowledging the author of a secondary data, the style of copying to paste any sourced information is of utmost importance, in order to avoid distortions. But that’s not the main gist in this maiden edition.

I will dwell on that matter in my subsequent writings. Corrupt data can serve as weapon of mass destruction, with the capacity of messing up the mindset of people. This is why some politicians have recently devised the cunningness of dropping erroneous statistical figures during campaigns to denigrate their opponents as incapable of managing the various sectors of the citizen’s life. Gullible electorates, who clap and roar in praises for their assumed brilliance, are never ready to fact-check their claims.

Unfortunately by the time those who know the truths appear, the votes would have been earned from the unsuspecting voters. Whether the statistic reeled out was right or wrong, the impact of figure rather than cerebral contests would have etched a permanent impression in their minds. This trend must be fought against if Africa must grow to its fullest height.