Nigeria’s national census this year will again not survey religion and ethnicity of citizens and residents, two subjects the country still considers too sensitive for enumeration.
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The two subjects will “divert attention” from the relevance of census data for national planning, the National Population Commission said. Official said citizens will not be asked to disclose their faith or state their ethnic groups.
The counting, coming 17 years after the last, will start on March 29 and run through April 2 across the 774 local government areas.
“Including ethnicity and religion in the census will create tensions and controversy that will divert attention from the relevance of census data for national planning,” the NPC said.
“It is therefore prudent to leave out these items to safeguard the census from controversies and risk of rejection by certain sections of the country.”
National Planning Minister Clem Agba said on Monday in Abuja that the government needs N869 billion for the programme – N626 billion for the actual census and N243 billion for post-census activities that will continue till 2025, according to Premium Times.
The exercise will be carried out by some 885,000 persons.
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Nigeria has a decades-long problem counting itself. Controversies have always arisen over tribal, regional and faith claims.
Since independence, two censuses have been cancelled after disputes over regional figures. The 1962 census, which reported 45 million people, was repeated in 1963 after the northern region rejected its figures. The south rejected the outcome of a recount a year later and challenged the outcome up to the Supreme Court, but lost.
The 1973 count was also cancelled after similar concerns over inflation of figures at the regional levels. The exercise reported 88.5 million people in 1991, nearly 10 million than the previous one.
The last census in 2006, regarded as being relatively more credible because it used GPS and satellite maps for demarcation of areas, and fingerprints to check double counting, reported 140 million.
Still it had its fair of controversy. The Obasanjo government removed religion as one of target data after protests by the country’s Muslim community which opposed calls by the Christian Association of Nigeria for the inclusion of religion in the counting.
Nigeria’s population is estimated at 216 million according to the UN population agency, UNFPA.
The methodology for the 2023 population and housing census covers assignment of enumeration areas, identification of enumeration areas, house numbering and household listing exercise, building and household listing data validation, census night, enumeration, data processing, data analysis, post enumeration survey, and dissemination.
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