Nigerian senators are currently divided over the proposed conduct of a national census in 2022 by the National Population Commission (NPC).
The disagreement among the senators was on account the N400 billion being proposed for the exercise by the Commission. Some of the senators believed that rather than spend that much on census, the money should be used to fight insecurity and improve infrastructure across the country.
Other members of the Red Chamber also picked holes in the budget after they discovered that the NPC may spend N2 billion on sanitizers and face masks within 13 days for the conduct of the exercise.
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The division in the Senate manifested at a meeting between the Senate Committee on Appropriation and top NPC officials, who came to defend the N400 Census Budget.
Senators were at each other’s throats on the desirability or otherwise of the conduct of census in the midst of security challenges, including terrorism, kidnapping, banditry and other crimes.
But the NPC said security challenges will not hinder the head count tentatively fixed for May 2022.
Apart from citing the successful conduct of elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the agency said it has just-concluded enumeration nationwide in the last one year.
