The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu has admonished the newly inaugurated commissioners on the Board of the National Population Commission, NPC, to ensure that the next census will produce the actual statistics of Nigeria’s population.
He said that knowing the figure was essential for economic planning and the spread of infrastructure across the country.
Kalu also said it was not right to continue to hazard a guess about the country’s population each time the issue arises and pointed out it was time the narrative is changed for good.
A statement forwarded to DAILY POST on Monday by his Chief Press Secretary, Levinus Nwabughiogu, stated that the Deputy Speaker gave the admonition at an inauguration dinner for the federal commissioner representing Abia State in the NPC Board, Chief Emmanuel Trump Eke, over the weekend in Abuja.
It would be recalled Eke was among the 17 appointees inaugurated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last week Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Kalu said: “The charge to you people as commissioners, to be honest, we don’t know our number in Nigeria.
“We cannot keep claiming we are the giant of Africa when we don’t have an accurate statistics of our actual number as a nation.
“It’s embarrassing. Each time they ask you of your population, you said about. When are we going to drop this “about”, that descriptive thing to our number? You people should make it exact.
“When we call Ogun State, you tell us the number. We call Abia, you tell us. Total number in the South East, you give us. Total in the South West, North West, South South, etc, you give us so that we can plan because economic planning without actual knowledge of the population is a waste of time.
“Because you might plan for a few and the infrastructure will be overused by the much you did not capture.”
Census: We need to know Nigeria’s actual population – Deputy Speaker