THE recurring inconsistency in the National population figures has been blamed on the inability of the Federal Government to fund and plan for credible ways of data capturing of its citizenry.                                           A Federal Commissioner in the National Population Commission (NPC), Professor Chika Moore, stated this while reacting to the recent statement by the Chairman of the Commission Dr Eze Duru Iheoma claiming that Nigeria’s population stood at one hundred and Ninety-eight million.
Professor Moore in a chat with newsmen in Awka, the Anambra State Capital, regretted that the Federal Government has not been able to harmonize agencies that collate the data of its citizens and said there is a need for efficiency in that direction so that planning will be done with real statistics.
The Federal Commissioner who also said that lack of funding was the major reason the National census which was due in 2016, has not been conducted, advocated more funding to the National Population Commission as a true statistics of the nation’s population will determine successes in economic planning.
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Contributing on the issue statement by the NPC chairman, Professor Peter Katchy, raised an alarm that Nigeria has over one thousand eight hundred unmanned borders which he noted will continue to pose security and economic challenges in the country.
He, therefore, called on the government to look critically into its boundary management to reduce the level of illegal migration into the country.
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