Need For Fresh National Census

The National Population Commission (NPC) in 2017, forwarded a N222 billion budget proposal to the Federal Government for the conduct of a fresh national census in 2018, after the previous headcount held in 2006 was marred by controversies and protests from various sections and ethnic nationalities, particularly the South South, South East and South West geo-political zones. These regions and geo-political blocs queried the figures reeled out by NPC. The rest is now history.
The NPC’s N222 billion proposal could not see the light of the day, perhaps because the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government at the time considered the 2019 general elections a more pressing priority and deserving over a national census as general elections and census are two capital intensive projects which government reasoned could not be successfully executed at virtually the same time. Hence, the headcount was kept on hold.
With the 2019 elections over, The Tide thinks that another census is long overdue, considering that the constitutional provision of 10 years for a fresh census exercise lapsed in 2016 after the previous one in 2006.
The reasons for a new census are multitudinous as Nigeria cannot continuously assume and conjecture her population on mere estimates and guess work without verified data and statistics.
Conservatively, the country’s population has been put between 180 and 200 million by several interest groups, stakeholders and international bodies, and because of these blind figures, national planning and economic development have been a mirage in the past two decades or more.
That is why The Tide earnestly is of the strong conviction that the census is long overdue after 13 years. While we are not ignorant of paucity of funds to execute such capital intensive project, we however think that a new headcount, in all intents and purposes, has become inevitable and imperative for the overall socio-economic and political growth and development of the Nigerian project.
Obviously, the continuous delay for a fresh exercise portends grave danger, as reliable human resource of the Nigerian state remains a sine-qua-non for national planning and sustainable development. How can Nigeria achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without a dependable statistics and data?
How indeed can the country meet its housing, water, roads, electricity, urban development and renewal, transportation, food production and security needs, among other variables, that are essential for human capital development without ascertaining the country’s exact population?
These puzzles are pertinent to any nation that wants to be reckoned with as a critical player within the comity of nations.
The Tide in its editorial of Friday, May 5, 2017, vehemently opposed the conduct of another census in 2018 for obvious reasons that the political class and elite may hijack the exercise to score political points and also influence the 2019 general elections. Our position has since changed as the elections had come and gone for good.
Given that the NPC’s N222 billion budget proposal is still with the Presidency, perhaps, with some adjustments, we think that the 9th National Assembly owes the citizenry an obligation to persuade the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to set the machinery in motion for a new census exercise.
While we are not ignorant of the financial implications of such exercise now, it is our candid opinion that with proper management of public funds, Nigeria can successfully conduct a smooth census in collaboration with relevant international stakeholders.
Notwithstanding the usual hiccups associated with a headcount exercise, the Chief Eze Duruiheroma-led commission must, as a matter of national expediency and priority, conduct a credible and generally acceptable census for all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, despite their political, religious, historical and geographical inclinations or differences.
All the logistics like finance, manpower, surveys, researches, documentations, sensitisation, demography, training and re-training of personnel, among others, should be put in their right perspective now in order to avoid the anomalies that characterised past exercises.
Nigeria, like other developed or developing nations of the world, cannot afford to wait endlessly without a reliable population figure that is verifiable, reliable and near accurate.
The time to get it right is now as our experiences in census exercise in the past had been unpalatable, and near-disaster in all ramifications.