Buhari pushes census to Tinubu after delay

After at least one delay, the Buhari administration has formally admitted it will not go ahead with Nigeria’s first census in nearly two decades but will hand over that responsibility to the incoming government.

It is the second government business the outgoing government has shifted to its successor, after deferring on fuel subsidy removal.

The count was expected in March but was moved at first to May following a rescheduling of the governorship election. The census was to be the first in 17 years.

Information minister Lai Mohammed said in a statement on Saturday that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the postponement of the 2023 population and housing census “to a date to be determined by the incoming administration.”

Mr Buhari will leave office on May 29. Former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu who was declared winner of the Feb. 25 presidential election is expected to be sworn in as new president on that day.

– Why this matters

The census will seek to update data on the population of Nigeria’s 36 local government areas, states and the country. It will not ask people to disclose their faith or ethnicity, two subjects the government considers too sensitive for enumeration.

The subjects will “divert attention” from the relevance of census data for national planning, the National Population Commission said in March.

Census figures in Nigeria affect the sharing of oil revenues and political representation in the country and previous counts were discredited after disputes between the south and north and among the main ethnic groups.

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Mr Mohammed said the decision to further delay the exercise was taken after Mr Buhari met with some members of his cabinet and the chairman of the National Population Commission on Friday.

“In arriving at the decision to postpone the census, the meeting reiterated the critical need for the conduct of a Population and Housing Census, 17 years after the last census, to collect up-to-date data that will drive the developmental goals of the country and improve the living standard of the Nigerian people,” he said.

“The president noted that with the completion of the Enumeration Area Demarcation of the country, conduct of first and second pretests, the recruitment and training of adhoc workers, procurement of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and ICT infrastructure, appreciable progress has been made in the implementation of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.”

Nigeria’s population is estimated at more than 200 million and the United Nations expects that figure to double by 2050. That would make Nigeria the world’s third most populous country, behind China and India, overtaking the United States.