Nigeria is to conduct a population census March 21- 25 to determine the actual population of the most populous African country.
The oil-rich West African country has been relying on estimated figures of between 90 million and 150 million people since it conducted its last census in 1991.
The absence of a reliable population figure and the lethargy (tilbageholdenhed) on the part of Nigerians to register births and deaths, particularly in the largely-illiterate hinterlands, has made planning for the provision of social services like schools, hospitals, water, roads, energy and other essentials a Herculean task for successive governments.
The UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) puts Nigerias total national coverage of registration of births and deaths at just 28 per cent.
This compares negatively with 79 per cent level in Cameroon, 69,7 per cent in Benin, 71.8 per cent in Ivory Coast and 83 per cent in Togo, all fellow West African countries, UNICEF declared in a 2005 report.
For the 2006 census, Nigeria plans to spend 121,4 million dollars, half of which has been contributed by the European Union.
EU assistance would be implemented in conjunction with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), said the Director-General of the Europe Aid Cooperation Office, Koos Richelle, while pledging the assistance in 2005 when he led EU ambassadors to Nigeria.
The contribution was mainly for the training and payment of census officials and not to be paid directly to the Nigerian government.
Originally, the census was planned to be held in the last quarter of 2005, but the usual controversies and need for better logistics pushed the head count to 2006.
Prominent among controversial issues was the agitation by the mainly Christian south-east that factors such as religion and tribe, twin issues that have led to bloody clashes across the land for decades, be made part of the demographic survey.
– We should know how many Christians and how many Muslims there are in this country and where they are resident, a governor of one of the states in the south-east said in support of the call.
Orji Kalu, governor of Abia State, said that rather than boycott the census if the religious and tribal issues are not reflected, as some interest groups have suggested, “we must mobilize everybody to ensure that we are all counted so that we can plan and distribute resources equitably.”
However, the census forms will not contain questions about tribe or religion, the chairman of the National Population Commission, Samuila Makama, said.
According to Makama, the 2006 census will be more scientific than previous ones as satellite images will be utilised and census staff have been trained to avoid the mistakes of the past.
The census forms will also be machine readable and will be processed electronically, in line with world standards, he said.
Makama said the 2006 census would be a pointer to the true state of births and deaths in the country. He said the birth of more than 10 million children had not been registered during the last decade.
The first census conducted in any part of Nigeria was in 1866, when British colonialists counted Nigerians only in the then Lagos colony, while the first nationwide census was conducted in 1921, seven years after the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates by the colonialists in 1914.
Since independence on October 1, 1960, Nigeria has conducted four censuses. It cancelled the one conducted in 1962 and repeated the exercise in 1963, without a nationally accepted result.
Those two, and the surveys conducted in 1973 and 1991, were all embroiled in controversies as politicians and interest groups manipulated the exercise in each region to secure anticipated advantage in times of national revenue sharing. The 1991 census was the least acrimonious.
The 1963 exercise put the population of the country at 55,66 million, while that of 1973 put it at about 79,76 million. The 1991 census put the figure at 88,99 million. Since then Nigeria has been relying on estimates to determine its population figures.
Inter-state movements are to be restricted during the 2006 census to ensure that Nigerians are counted in their actual places of residence as opposed to their preference for their states of origin.
Kilde: The Push Journal
