A group of youth in Yauri town of Kebbi state that embarked on an exercise to count the number of millet grains in a full bag has announced its findings.
The youth embarked on the exercise in August following an argument.
Initial reports by the Hausa service of the BBC said the young men decided to buy a full bag of millet and count how many grains were in it, after an argument that an average bag has more millet than the Nigerian population.
The group announced their findings on Saturday at an elaborate ceremony held at the palace of the traditional ruler of Yauri town.
The spokesperson of the group, Ahmed Sarkin-Yaki, announced that after 105 days of counting, they found out that a full bag of millet contains 11,979,868 (Eleven Million, Nine Hundred and Seventy Nine, thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty Eight) pieces.
At the event which was well attended with media coverage, Mr Sarkin-Yaki said “It is now official that Nigerian population is greater that a full bag of millet”.
When reports of the counting were first announced, many commentators expressed the view that exercises such as the one embarked upon by the young persons was as a result of unemployment.
However, the governor of Kebbi state, Atiku Bagudu, was reported as saying that most of those involved were not unemployed and they were just on a quest to validate an assertion via research.
