Stakeholders Call For Census For Proper Planning

Stakeholders have lamented the absence of credible population data in the country for the past 19 years, saying it hinders proper planning, growth and development.

The chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Isa Kwarra stated this when he appeared before the Senate committee on National Identity and Population on Tuesday.

According to him, Nigeria has been operating a trial and error planning in the absence of reliable date, stressing that Nigeria should hold its population census this year.

Agreeing with Kwarra, who hinted that biometric model of headcount is being worked on, the Senate committee said the situation has turned Nigeria into a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

The chairman of the committee, Senator Abdul Ningi and other members deplored the situation and called on the authorities to take urgent steps to address the lapse.

A member of the committee, Senator Diket Plang said, “I feel very bad that we are still living on estimated population figures. I feel bad that we are still postulating and relying on data supplied by foreign bodies which is more or less demeaning us among the comity of nations. We want to know our population. Nigerians should be counted this year.”

Also, the Deputy Senate Minority leader, who doubles as vice chairman of the committee, Senator Olalere Oyewumi ( PDP Osun West ), said NPC should put everything in place for the population headcount to hold this year.

According to him, the census should be held this year and that shifting it to 2026 would be inappropriate because it would be too close to the 2027 general election.

“2025 budget of NPC should revolve around population census, which must be done this year because the demographic characteristics of the population figures being bandied about the country now are not known.

“NPC should get its act together for the President to make proclamation on the population census which in itself, will facilitate provisions for the required money,” he said.

Emphasising the importance of the exercise, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Ningi, said the committee, through the President of the Senate, will write President Bola Tinibu on the need for conducting the census this year.

The NPC chairman however, said President Tinubu is not against population head count but that he wants it done biometrically.

“President Bola Tinubu is obviously on the same page with members of this committee on the need for population head count. But the assignment he has given us is that all machinery and facilities should be put in place for the very important exercise to be done biometrically in a way that at the end of the day, nobody will say fishes were counted in the riverine areas and cows counted in the North.”

Earlier in his budget presentation, the NPC boss said the total budgetary provision for the commission in 2024 was N12.7billion out of which N1.17billion was earmarked for capital vote , N818.9million for overhead and N10.8billion for personnel cost .

For the 2025 fiscal year, the NPC chairman said N18.2billion was proposed, out of which N1.17billion is earmarked for overhead and N17.7billion for capital votes.

The budgetary proposal was approved by the committee.

Stakeholders Call For Census For Proper Planning is first published on The Whistler Newspaper