Recent discountenancing of the figure given in April by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), about 201m by the National Population Commission (NPC), has raised serious question of trust on the side of the Commission who recently pegged current Nigeria’s population at 190m.
Whereas UNFPA had based its estimation on credible global best practices and facts from the 2006 census result, Head of the NPC, Mallam Ghaji Ismail claimed it arrived its figure of 190m based on available data which he did not reveal.
Ismail who argued that “You have to use models to arrive at the figures you are projecting. The margin of error is very small,” was silent on the actual models it used to arrive at the 190m figure, thus raising issues of controversies and trust on the new figure.
However, while agreeing that “It was imperative to conduct another national population census as soon as possible,” he noted that “Steps are being taken to ensure that the national population census is conducted soon, in a bid to have positive implications for national security.”
Since Tuesday he addressed the media, Development Economists and public affairs analysts are divided on the true meaning and official interpretation of the clause; “in a bid to have positive implications for national security.”
Business Hilights recalls that statistics earlier given by the NPC, Nigeria’s population had grown substantially from 17.3 per cent in 1967 to 49.4 per cent in 2017 even as Nigeria’s population has recorded an annual growth rate of 3.2 per cent since the last national census in 2006.
