The Senate has declared that a fresh census to provide accurate data on the population of Nigerians must be conducted this year.
Lawmakers on the Senate Committee on National Identity and Population made the declaration on Tuesday during a session with the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Hon Nasir Isa Kwarra, who appeared before the Committee to defend the agency’s 2025 Budget.
Individual Senators expressed concern over the lack of credible data and statistics for thorough and specific planning in the absence of accurate headcount figures. Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that the last successful census in Nigeria was conducted in 2006. The first digital census conducted in 2003 was widely disputed.
Senator representing Plateau Central, Diket Plang, was the first to express displeasure over the lack of credible data on the population. He 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.”
Speaking in a similar vein, Senator representing Osun West and Minority Leader, Lere Oyewunmi, tasked the NPC to ensure that everything was put in place for the seamless conduct of the headcount. He also cautioned against pushing the exercise close to the conduct of the next general elections. “The population exercise must be held this year because 2026 will be too close to the 2027 general election.
“The 2025 budget of NPC should revolve around the 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 a proclamation on the population census which in itself will facilitate provisions for the desired money.”
Stretching the argument further on the imperative of the census, Senator representing Bauchi Central and Chairman of the Committee, Abdul Ningi, who lamented the absence of a fresh census in the last 19 years, declared that his Committee, through the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, would write to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the need to conduct the exercise this year.
The NPC Chairman, Honourable Kwarra, however, clarified that President Tinubu was not against the headcount but insisted on the use of biometrics. “President Bola Tinubu is obviously on the same page with members of this committee on the need for a population headcount, but the assignment he has given us is that all machineries 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.”
Presenting his Commission’s 2025 Budget, Honourable Kwarra said N18.2 billion was proposed, out of which N1.17 billion has been earmarked for overhead and N17.7 billion for capital votes.
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