‘There should be security first’ — reps reject motion to ask Tinubu to fix date for census

The house of representatives has rejected a motion seeking to ask President Bola Tinubu to fix a date for the conduct of the national census.

The national census was last conducted in the country in 2006.

Moved by Dominic Okafor and Patrick Umoh from Anambra and Akwa Ibom, respectively, the motion sought to urge Tinubu to declare a date for the conduct of the census to facilitate accurate economic planning.

The 2023 census was billed to take place across the country between May 3 and 5 but former President Muhammadu Buhari postponed the exercise.

Lai Mohammed, former minister of information and culture, had said that a new date for the census would be determined by the new administration.

THE DEBATE 

While leading the debate on the motion, Okafor, the lead sponsor, said census provides accurate population data that is crucial for development planning, policy formulation, resource allocation, and government programme implementation.

Okafor stressed that the census is important at this time when the federal and state governments are working on giving palliatives to vulnerable citizens and also planning other social services.

“Data collected in the 2006 population census is far from reality in 2023 and cannot validly form a solid base for the formation of national economic policies that will aid the federal government in administering viable national planning,” he said. 

The legislator said the National Population Commission (NPC) spent N200 billion out of the N800 billion budgeted for the planning and mid-execution of the census. 

“If the population and housing census fails to take place within 12 months, the information gathered across the country would become stale, a waste of resources and the country would have to increase costs of gathering fresh information.”

In his contribution, Ahmed Jaha from Borno, opposed the motion, noting that census is not feasible because of the insecurity ravaging many parts of the country.

He argued that many people displaced in the north-west, north-east and other parts of the country as a result of insecurity are not liable to be counted.

“In Nigeria, we are not ready to conduct censuses now because most places are not accessible,” he said

The lawmaker said he is “strongly” against the motion, adding that it should be rejected.

Ademorin Kuye from Lagos, supported the motion, urging his colleagues to support it.

He said for there to be proper planning at the state and federal levels, a census should be conducted.

The lawmaker said Jaha did not take time to look at the prayer of the motion appropriately.

He added that the concerns raised were in existence when the money was appropriated for the conduct of the census.

Inua Garuba from Gombe also opposed the motion, saying there should not be a census when there is no security.

“Some few kilometres away from some state capital nobody will have the courage to start conducting census of people,” he said.

Kama Kama from Ebonyi backed Garuba’s position, saying some places in the south-east are not accessible.

Idris Wase from Plateau said while the census would lead to “good planning for development”, the insecurity in the country has to be addressed first.

“We are deceiving ourselves if we have not secured ourselves but want to conduct the census. The situation is not right,” he said.

The motion was rejected when it was put to a voice vote by Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house.

Gaza Jonathan from Nasarawa proposed that all the prayers should be expunged except the one which calls for the investigation of the National Population Commission (NPC) for the money expended on the planned census.

His amendment was voted for when it was subjected to a voice vote by Abbas.