The Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Duruiheoma, has said that holding the planned 2016 National Census in the country would not be realistic, due to inadequate logistics and other sundry challenges.
The chairman, who made this known Thursday at a media luncheon, organised by the Commission in Abuja, however, disclosed that the census would rather hold in 2017, all things being equal.
Represented by the Federal Commissioner for Enugu State, Dr. Festus A. Uzor, the commission boss also hinted that the proposed 2017 National Census would necessarily require the use of bio-metric data of each countable individual citizen in the country.
“I am not going to say anything novel; I stand here representing the chairman. I am not speaking in my personal capacity, and what I am going to tell you is what he has said in our meetings. He has said it over and over again. We set out planning for 2016 census, going by the United Nations guidelines, which is supposed to hold in 2016, but we need no less than two years to plan well for the exercise, even if we have all the money asked for.
“If all the money required for it is available, we will not be ready in 2016 to do a good job, and it is our position that we rather not do a job than do it and do it badly; that is a waste of national resources. You will be part of those that will condemn us if we don’t do a good job. So, the chairman has said in our meetings and made it clear that 2016 is not realistic, not that we don’t want to hold it, but the earliest time it can hold is 2017.”
Commenting on the fact that the actual current census figure had remained uncertain and in doubt in some quarters, Duruiheoma stated: “If we don’t know how many we are and who we are change will be difficult to achieve…….The only figure known as Nigerian population figure is the figure for the last census. It‘s somewhere around 170 million. When we have another census, we can now have another basis to say that is not correct or this is where we are.
“We have challenges conducting the census. We had census in the past where people were counted twice or more. Now we use bio-metric data. Now, what will this bio-metric data do for us when we begin the count? If you count one person, a hundred times, the system will cancel it and pick one. There will be no double count.
“If you want to count the ghosts, the people that do not exist, there will be no data to back it up. In the course of enumeration. Those not originally in the list or members of a household who are not really part of the household would be ascertained.”
According to him: “The problem with previous census exercises has been credibility.”
He added that when data was credible and reliable, the result of the exercise would be impressive and applauded.
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