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The Senate on Tuesday lamented the country’s failure to conduct a population census in the past 19 years.
The Red Chamber stated that it has made Nigeria a laughing stock among the comity of nations which regard credible data and proper planning as the standard practice.
Consequently, the legislators directed the National Population Commission to ensure Nigeria holds a nationwide census this year.
This was even as the NPC Chairman, Nasir Kwarra, hinted that the biometric model of the headcount is being worked on.
The Senate did not hide its displeasure at the absence of credible data and statistics for thorough and specific planning in the country due to a lack of headcounts over the years.
This came to the fore during the 2025 budget defence session which the NPC chairman had with the Senate Committee on National Identity and Population chaired by Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP Bauchi Central).
The first lawmaker to register his disappointment was Senator Diket Plang (APC Plateau Central), who said that he felt bad to discover that the country does not have credible data on the population of its citizenry.
He said, “I feel very bad that we are still living on estimated population figures. I also feel bad that we are still postulating and relying on data supplied by foreign bodies, which is more or less demeaning us among committee of nations.
“We want to know our population. Nigeria should be counted this year.”
The Deputy Minority Leader of the Senate, who doubles as Vice Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olalere Oyewumi (PDP Osun West) agreed with him.
Oyewumi assked the NPC to put everything in place for the headcount to hold this year
The senator emphasised that there is a need to prevent what happened in 2022 during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration from repeating itself.
According to him, it would be too risky to allow the exercise to spill into 2026, which is too close to the 2027 general election.
“The 2025 budget of NPC should revolve around population census, which must be done this year because the demographic characteristics of the population figures being bandied about the country now are not known.
“The NPC should get its act together for the President to make proclamation on the population census, which in itself will facilitate provisions for the desired money,” he stated.
Harping on the importance of the exercise, Ningi, in his address, noted that the committee will, through the President of the Senat,e write President Bola Tinubu on the need to hold the census this year.
The NPC chairman, however, explained that the President is not against head count but only wants it done biometrically.
He said, “President Bola Tinubu is obviously on the same page with members of this committee on the need for population head count.
“But the assignment he has given us is that all the devices and facilities should be put in place for the 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.”
Earlier in his budget presentation, the NPC boss asserted that N18.2bn was proposed in the 2025 fiscal year but added that only N1.17bn was earmarked for overhead and N17.7bn for capital votes.
