Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has declared that Nigeria is running away from census.
Obasanjo said this while urging the National Population Commission (NPC) to conduct accurate, credible and acceptable data in the forthcoming 2023 census.
According to him, it would assist the country in planning and formulating policies.
He made the call on Tuesday during a courtesy visit by the Executive Chairperson of NPC, who came alongside the country representative from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Nigeria and other officials of the commission at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta.
Recall that the last census was conducted in 2006 during Obasanjo’s administration.
Obasanjo said, “We are running away from making use of our census, the same way we are running from religion and ethnicity.
“The census should lead to real demarcation of constituencies which we have run away from since 2006.
“Census figures that we do not use for planning, for real demarcation and all that is not serving a useful purpose; it is a waste of money; I believe we should get this right so that we will be able to know where we are today.
“I don’t know how long we will keep running away from census, and we keep deceiving and lying to ourselves, by running away from the truth, we must face and deal with it,” he said.
Earlier, the NPC chairperson, Nasir Kwarra, applauded Obasanjo for conducting a successful census back in 2006 and for giving the commission the solid platform to continue.
