There were indications yesterday that paucity of funds may constitute
a major set back to the conduct of the proposed national population
and housing census billed to take place next year.
EYES OF LAGOS gathered that about one year to the proposed population
and housing census, the National Population Commission (NPC) is yet to
carry out Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) in 700 local government
areas (LGAs) across the country.
The EAD is one of the core preparatory activities for the census
which constitutes the foundation on which the entire census architecture
stands.
NPC had in 2016 demarcated 37 local governments in the first and
second phases of the EAD exercise in 37 local governments in the 36
states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as well as another 37
local governments in the third phase in March 2017, making a total of 77
local governments out of 774.
The NPC has, however, blamed inadequate funding for the delay, while
hoping to complete the exercise before the end of this year.
Chairman of the commission, Eze Duruiheoma, who disclosed this
assured that “barring fund constraint, the commission should be able to
complete the EAD before the end of the year and well ahead of the
first quarter date for the conduct of the 2018 census”.
Stressing the impact of the exercise to the entire census activities,
Duruiheoma said, “In the pre-census period, the total number of EAs and
its distribution are required for census planning, particularly the
deployment of personnel, logistics and materials for the pretest, trial
census, the main census and the post enumeration survey.
“Also, in the post census period, the products of EAD are required
for effective dissemination of the census data, particularly at the
small area level. The EAD is therefore the vehicle that drives the
entire census process in the pre-census, actual enumeration and post
census period”.
The proposed 2018 national population census is estimated to cost
N272bn. The federal government is expected to fund the exercise by only
51 per cent, while the international donor community will fund the
remaining 49 per cent.
Speaking to journalists in New York recently, the Director-General of
the NPC, Dr. Ghaji Bello, said, “The submission we have made to the
Federal Government is in the region of N272bn. But the good thing is
that that the N272bn is not for one single year.
“It is spread along a four-year tenure. There’s pre-census
activities, that is the preparation; the actual census proper itself and
the post-census enumeration activities. So, maybe you are looking at an
average of maybe N40bn in the first year, another N100bn during the
actual census itself and then the balance during the last year.
“But the beauty again is that not all the resources are normally
provided by the government of the federation. The international
community does come in and supporters like EU, USAID ; from the previous
record that we have, the ratio is 51 to 49 per cent.
“The 51 per cent is provided by the federal government while the 49
per cent is provided by the international donor community. Normally,
there is no country that does census on its own and more so, it is a
very capital-intensive activity. Funding is important because we have to
demarcate.
“There is an exercise that is called Enumeration Area Demarcation
which is supposed to be the foundation or the building block of census.
And that is supposed to be carried out in every hamlet, every village,
every local government, every household and then the entire nation. That
is normally a costly exercise, very expensive. And of course, up till
now we have only been able to do 74 local governments out of 774”.
EYES OF LAGOS recalls that Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Yakubu Dogara, had last week cautioned against the conduct of population
census in 2018, saying the outcome of the exercise may become
vulnerable to manipulation.
He called on those clamouring for conduct of the census to exercise
patience till after the 2019 general elections when there would be no
political pressure to manipulate its outcome.
Noting that conducting a population census in an election year may
generate unrealistic results, Dogara advised that the next
administration should conduct the census at the beginning of its tenure
when there isn’t so much at stake.
“I won’t advise anyone to conduct national census in 2018. I said it
before that if we are not going to achieve it in 2017, then we should
just forget it until after 2019. If you conduct census at the niche of
elections, there will be so much pressure, crisis and the lure for
people to manipulate the figures for political reasons, such that the
agency cannot even cope with”, the Speaker stated.
