Census 2006

Nigeria is on the verge of making another headcount. Originally scheduled for the 29th November through the 3rd of December 2005 the headcount was postponed to run from the 21st to the 25th of March 2006 because of Federal government’s failure to do “what needs to be done and how they need to be done,” OBJ-speak for lack of over 30 million electronic forms required for the exercise.

Population is a very explosive and emotive issue in Nigeria. It serves as the basis for making the allocation of funds to states and local governments, a yardstick for determining representation into the National and States Assemblies and on the strength of it presidents, governors and other officials are elected. These political advantages have overshadowed the most important economic benefit of census like knowledge of the structure of the population, its spatial, sex and occupational distribution, level of employment and literacy, the total number of foreign nationals and their countries of origin. Timing the census twelve months to the general election seems, to me, totally inappropriate.

The 2006 census is the first most high tech in the history of census in Nigeria using Global Positioning Satellite, machine-readable forms, automated fingerprint identification system and the geographic information system. It is also the largest collaboration between the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme in any one country; the sum of USD120.22 million was committed to assisting Nigeria ensure a successful and credible headcount. Of the amount, USD100 million was earmarked to address the training of the fieldworkers in about 1.7 million census enumerators nationwide and the payment of their allowances. In the run up to the census, there were loud complaints and protests about the non payment of enumerators emoluments, the disbursement of differing remunerations and the appearance of ghost enumerators, (people who were neither ad hoc enumerators nor staff of the National Population Commission), whose names made it to the pay rolls.

The intention of running a clean and transparent census is hampered not only by the problem of corrupt practices in the wake of it. Politicians would be highly motivated to influence the conduct and outcome of this headcount and the headcount itself is already fuelling irredentist claims by the Irele and Ijaw of Taribo communities in Ondo state. It took the intervention of Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr, minister for information and national orientation, to prevail on some disgruntled communities in the Kogi East senatorial districts to drop a litigation in the federal high court that sought to restrain the National Population Commission from carrying out the headcount in Idah, Olamabaro, Dekina Ibaji, Ankpa, Bassa, Igalamela / Odoru, Omala and Ofu.

In the Kogi Central senatorial districts accustomed to fighting amongst themselves, politicians and the civil society have finally found in the census a common ground on which to fight perceived marginalisation and the dominance of the Kogi East. The National Population commission deliberately kept sensitive issues like ethnicity and religion out of the census questionnaire. Motivated by the function of the census as a basis for sharing the proceeds from the sale of the crude oil politicians drum up support for active participation in the headcount by people in the rural communities. Buses were hired to carry Anebira from their farms in Owo, Akure, Ido-Ani and other locations home for the exercise.

Nigeria has had a go at national census about five times in all of her history. The 1952-53’s put the population of the country at 31.6 million. That of 1962 was cancelled following charges of inflation of census figures. The 1963 attempt put the population at 55.6 million. The one in 1973 was cancelled because of widespread disagreement. The 1991 census put the population of Nigeria at 88.9 million, which was widely seen as credible.

The figure of one million, which is being bandied about as the population of Anebira, is an underestimation that is based on the 1963 census. Here is hoping for a successful sixth attempt to give Nigerians and the world a credible population figure.