The National Population Commission (NPC) of Nigeria has postponed its first census in 17 years due to insufficient planning time, with a new date to be set by the incoming government led by President-elect Bola Tinubu.
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This is the second delay this year to the census, which impacts the distribution of oil revenues and political representation across the country’s 36 states and 300 ethnic groups. Previous counts were discredited due to disputes among the Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo ethnic groups.
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The NPC said that Nigerians will not be asked about their ethnicity and religion during the census to due to “the sensitive nature of these issues and the need to save the census data from needless controversies and attention.” Nigeria’s population is estimated to be over 200 million, and the UN predicts it will double by 2050, making it the world’s third most populous country.