Census must hold this year, lawmakers tell NPC

From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja

The Senate has charged the National Population Commission (NPC) to ensure that a national census is held this year to end the reliance on “trial and error projections.”

The declaration was made on Tuesday during a budget defence session of the ministry on the 2025 budget.

The lawmakers expressed their dissatisfaction that the lack of a headcount in the past 19 years has made Nigeria a laughingstock among nations.

They also voiced concerns over the absence of credible data for proper planning, relying instead on “trial and error projections.”

Speaking at the meeting chaired by Sen. Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), Senator Diket Plang (APC, Plateau Central) lamented, “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. Nigeria should be counted this year,” he said.

Similarly, the Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olalere Oyewumi (PDP, Osun West), who is also the Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, directed the NPC to ensure the population headcount takes place in 2025, as 2026 will be too close to the 2027 general election.

In his remarks, Sen. Ningi said the committee will write to President Tinubu about the need for the exercise to hold this year.

Responding, the NPC Chairman disclosed that the President is positively disposed to the population headcount but wants it conducted biometrically for accuracy.

He stated, “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 machinery and facilities should be put in place for this 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.”

On the 2024 budget performance, the NPC boss said the total budget was N12.7 billion, out of which N1.17 billion was for capital votes, N818.9 million for overhead, and N10.8 billion for personnel costs.

For 2025, N18.2 billion was allocated, with N1.17 billion for overhead and N17.7 billion for capital.