Lawmaker urges FG to conduct national census

Member Representing Ajaokuta Federal Constituency, Idirissu Lawal has called on the Federal Government to take urgent step towards the conduct of a reliable population census in the country for effective planning.

Lawal who is the House Committee Chairman on National Population Commission (NPC) said the country cannot continue to guess its population, noting that a population census in the country has been long overdue.

The lawmaker, who spoke on the sideline of a bill he sponsored for amendment of the National Population Commission which passed second reading recently, said the best way to set Nigeria back on the path of recovery was to secure authentic and verifiable records of its population through a validly conducted population census.

“It is extremely important to conduct a new national census; the last one conducted was in 2006. 14 years is too long a time for such exercise. And it does not augur well for us as a country to rely solely on projections by foreign bodies on her population figures for planning”, he said.