The immediate past Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC),? Mr. Suma’ila Makama, has said that conducting a census requires a lot of courage and sensitisation.
Makama made the observation in Abuja on Monday night at a dinner organised by the UN Population Fund to mark the Day of Seven Billion during which he was honoured with as a parting gift for his work at the NPC.
“The road to census in Nigeria is littered with many banana peels; its manipulation and politicisation must be avoided at all levels.’’
According to him, the job of conducting the census is supposed to be a simple statistical exercise but this is usually not the case in Nigeria.
“The exercise is full of land mines and has the potential of destabilising the government and the country if enough care is not taken to make it worthy of acceptance nationally and internationally.’’
Makama blamed the problem on the predetermination of census figures by some people who, he said, would not accept anything that did not meet their expectations.
He said that the concern most people had during his tenure was never an under-count but an over-count of census figures.
The former NPC chairman said that it was through the use of cutting edge technology and transparency that the 2006 National Housing and Population Census was able to stand the test of time.