New Census Date Will Be Less Controversial – Tony Aiyejina

The National Population Commission, Federal Commissioner representing Edo State, Dr Tony Aiyejina has come out to say that the shift in the 2023 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission was the major reason why the NPC had to postpone the 2023 population census.

He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, while NPC shifted the date for the census to May, the rainy period put paid to the exercise in order to uphold the principle of simultaneity which guides census exercises world over.

He, however, added that whenever a new date comes out, it would be reliable and auditable, unlike the controversies that trailed the censuses of the past.

His words, “The postponement of the election by INEC led to the shift of the census. However, with the rainy season, the census is no longer possible at this time.”

“The censuses of the past were riddled with controversies. One thing about the 2023 census is that the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari did not attempt to teleguide the commission.”

“We opted for digital census and we introduced the Personal Digital Assistant which is deliberately configured and can be tracked to monitor fieldwork.”

“This is to ensure that the census will not only be accurate, but it will also be reliable and auditable. But because elections and census in Nigeria have a relationship, we intend to insulate the census from politics.”

“We thought that a gap of two months or so after the election will suffice. But whatever happened in INEC affected NPC which had to adjust its timeline from March to May before we ran into a quagmire due to the rain, which made the postponement inevitable. It is not because we did anything wrong or something went wrong.”