2024 census to hold as scheduled – Nigerian Senate assures

The Senate has promised that the population and housing census fixed for November this year will hold as scheduled.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Identity and Population, Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), stated this while speaking yesterday in Abuja during the screening of 17 of the 19 commissioner-nominees for the National Population Commission, NPC.

Ningi noted that coincidentally, most of the nominees are people coming for the second time.

He said: “It is a renomination and we have perused their credentials presented in the first instance, compared to the ones they. have just presented.”

It will be recalled that Nigeria has been using estimated figures for many years, as the last census was conducted in 2006, by the National Population Commission, which gave a population figure of 140 million.

The immediate past administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari had planned to conduct another census in 2022 but the programme was later moved to 2023.

The exercise was, however, suspended indefinitely by Buhari, a few days before leaving office, saying he would allow President Bola Tinubu to announce new dates for the headcount.

Recently, Tinubu pledged his administration’s support for the next census, asserting its importance in crucial aspects of national planning.

Speaking further, Ningi, who noted that conducting the exercise is all about political will by the government, noted that Nigeria had not conducted a census in the last 11 years.

He said: “We are almost 11 years without taking the United Nations resolution on population which comes almost every seven years.

“I am sure with the political will, this is possible, it’s doable, the commission is ready, the personnel are ready. All we need do is the announcement by the President that the population census is coming on a date and once he says it, the international observers will now come in with their support.

“Without the President’s declaration, no one will send a kobo to Nigeria to support population census. Seventy-five per cent of the logistics in terms of machines, in terms of training of the personnel have been completed.
“All we need to do is for the President to have the political will, and commitment to say the census is taking place and we cannot postpone it.”