The leadership of Senate on Tuesday expressed dismay over failure to embark on population census in the country and ordered the National Population Commission (NPC) to ensure that the exercise is carried out this year.
The order was given when the Chairman of the NPC, Hon. Nasir Isa Kwarra, appeared before the Senate Committee on National Identity and Population to defend allocations to his agency in the 2025 budget.
The committee, chaired by Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), expressed anger over lack of head counts in the country for the past 19 years.
A member of the committee, Senator Diket Plang (APC, Plateau Central), said he felt bad as a Nigerian and leader about his country not having credible data on the population of its citizenry.
Similarly, the deputy minority leader of the Senate who doubles as Vice Chairman of the committee, Senator Olalere Oyewumi (PDP, Osun West), said, “2025 budget of NPC should revolve around population census, which must be done this year.”
“To prevent what happened in 2022 during President Muhammadu Buhari from repeating itself, the population exercise must be held this year because 2026 will be too close to the 2027 general elections.”
Earlier in his budget presentation, the NPC chairman said for the 2025 fiscal year, N18.2 billion is proposed out of which N1.17 billion has been earmarked for overhead and N17.7 billion set as capital votes.
