CSO wants NPC to determine census date, not FG

Forum 11 months ago

CSO wants NPC to determine census date, not FG

The Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, has said that the inability of the National Population Commission to determine when to conduct census is an indication of a lack of institutional strength and independence of the commission.

Rafsanjani, who made this remark in a telephone interview with Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, criticised a statement by the Director of Public Affairs of National Population Commission, Dr Isiaka Yahaya, that only government could determine when the population would hold and not the commission.

Yahaya had said, “It’s for government to answer about the time that is auspicious, not the commission.”

But Rafsanjani said, “The census in Nigeria has been very contentious and very controversial and therefore, we need to make sure that we have a legal framework with which we allow a body like National Population Commission to have its independence and autonomy, have people with impeccable character and credibility to be in the commission because it is as good as holding elections.”

He added, “We cannot continue this way. The NPC needs to check the law and see where those gaps are and we can all seek proper autonomy and independence with people of impeccable character and morals, who are patriotic, not people doing ethnic or religious census which undermines the essence of having census in Nigeria.”

Also, a political analyst, Chief Omenazu Jackson, noted that such a statement was not a tenable excuse, stating that the commission needed some form of autonomy and independence like the Independent National Electoral Commission to determine when to conduct census.

Explaining that census was like an election, Jackson said, “The commission giving Nigerians such an excuse clearly shows that they don’t know what they are doing and it clearly shows an institution that lacks ideas and the knowledge of inherent powers associated with it as regards the constitution.

“It is a commission just like INEC but INEC determines when to conduct elections. It is wrong to say the Federal Government will determine when census will hold. We have weak institutions in this country.”