The planned population census

AGAINST the backdrop of the pervasive insecurity in the country, the House of Representatives, penultimate week, urged the Federal Government to immediately suspend the proposed 2021 population and housing census to be conducted by the National Population Commission (NPC). The House’s resolution followed a motion by Honourable Shehu Beji (APC-Niger), who had bemoaned the state of insecurity in the country. According to Beji, the insecurity in the country had led to the displacement of numerous citizens and communities, and many of the displaced persons had even crossed over to neighbouring countries for refuge. Beji noted that with the overwhelming security challenges, expecting accuracy in any census conducted would be “like a camel passing through the eye of a needle.” The House, therefore, called on the Federal Government to suspend the upcoming census exercise until the security of the country was stabilised. It also mandated the relevant committee to inquire about the plans of the National Population Commission (NPC) on the census and also invite the commission’s chairman  to speak on the feasibility of conducting the census amid insecurity. The last national census was conducted in 2006.

In December last year, the NPC boss, Nasir Kwarra, had indicated that the commission was prepared to conduct a nationwide census from June this year. Speaking at a press conference titled Accelerating Nigeria’s Demographic Dividend: Process and Progress so far, Kwarra had noted that the census had been delayed for five years and that the commission was in talks with the government for a directive. “We have been conducting enumeration area demarcation in the country; we’ve covered 460 local governments. Right now, we’re undertaking the exercise in 96 local governments throughout the country and by the end of June, we are hoping to finish the 774 local governments,” he had said. Previously, in October 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the sum of N10 billion for the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) currently being conducted by the commission, together with an additional N4.5 billion to be included in the 2021 budget for the completion of the exercise, as part of the preparations for the next census.

Subsequently, last month, the NPC said that it was awaiting President Buhari’s approval to conduct a national census by the first quarter of 2022. A federal commissioner and chairman of the Public Affairs Committee of the commission, Mr. Abdulmalik Durunguwa, said it was strategising and working hard to ensure that the mistakes of the past were corrected by conducting an accurate and reliable census. According to him, the demarcation, a prelude to the conduct of the national census, was gaining momentum nationwide. To say the very least, we are opposed to any population census either in 2021 or 2022. There are no valid grounds for such a prodigiously wasteful exercise. In the first instance, it is scandalous that anyone would be talking about a population census when vast portions of the country’s territory are in the hands of terrorists. Time and again, state governors, especially in the northern part of the country, have raised the alarm over the infiltration and virtual takeover of their jurisdictions by bandits, kidnappers and other apostles of naked terror and brutality. Across the country, nomadic herdsmen are making life unbearable for Nigerians, shedding farmers’ blood at will and committing rape, murder and brigandage in towns and on the highways while officials of the Buhari administration dawdle and dither about their responsibilities.

More fundamentally, it is improper to be proposing yet another census when it is a fact that hardly anybody believes that the results of such exercises are a reflection of the realities on the ground. From the First Republic to the present, census figures have  always been manipulated for political purposes. Former Bayelsa State governor and senator representing Bayelsa West in the National Assembly, Seriake Dickson, recently had occasion to point out to the inadmissibility of past census figures, suggesting that the state would not have the ridiculous figures officially allocated to it if it had the establishment on its side when those figures were churned out during military rule.

There is simply no structure in place for a proper census. Rather than a population census, what the country needs for now is restructuring. A restructured polity would allow for data-driven census figures. The proposed population and housing census should be suspended. It is not feasible this year and there is nothing to suggest that 2022 will be different in any way. We endorse the resolution by the House of Representatives and urge the Buhari government to abide by it.

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