The National Population Commission (NPC) has explained the reasons behind suspending the 2023 census, News About Nigeria reports.
The Federal Commissioner representing Osun State at the NPC, Dr. Amidu Tadese, revealed this while speaking with newsmen in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Monday.
Recall that the Federal Government had scheduled the Population and Housing Census for May 3-6, 2023, before it was postponed after the general elections last year.
Explaining the reasons for its suspension, Tadese noted that the population census in Nigeria is too sensitive to be rushed.
He stated that the exercise would have failed the integrity test considering the agitation that usually accompanies such exercises.
According to him, the timing of last year’s census was designed not to hold because the government was supposed to depart on May 29.
He also noted that the general elections had just taken place and there were lots of issues surrounding them, adding that they could not be added to the complaints that are known to come with the census exercise in Nigeria.
“The last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari attempted to conduct a census in 2023; we don’t need to be told that the timing of last year’s census was designed ab initio not to hold because the government was supposed to depart on May 29.
“The election just took place and people were still contending with several issues around it. Meanwhile, the census itself comes with a lot of complaints. We witnessed the 2006 census, where some states of the federation disagreed with the figure and went ahead to conduct an independent census of their citizens.
“If another census was allowed to take place, the result would not have been accepted by the majority of the citizens. So, the then-president took the right decision by suspending it to allow the coming administration to settle down and address the issue,” he explained.
