Population census achievable in 2020 says NPC

Barring unforeseen circumstances, the National Population Commission (NPC) is set to conduct the next population census in the year 2020, the commission said on Tuesday.

The commission made the disclosure when the Senate Committee on Population and National Identity went on an oversight visit to its headquarters in Abuja.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Sulaiman Hunkuyi, consequently asked the commission to approach President Muhammadu Buhari, requesting him to proclaim the year 2020 as a census year.

He added that since 2020 was feasible, the current year 2019 should also be declared as a pre-census year in order to fast-track preparatory processes for the success of the exercise.

Earlier, receiving the Senate committee members on behalf of the chairman of the commission, the Federal Commissioner representing Oyo state, Dr. Oyetayo Oyetunji, applauded the committee for its various legislative interventions in support of the commission.

Oyetunji disclosed that the commission already has a Strategic Action Plan towards achieving the 2020 census exercise even as the commission hinted that the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) already embarked upon in some parts of the country was a pointer that the census exercise in 2020 is achievable.

Meanwhile, during the interface with senior management staff of NPC, the Senate Committee queried how the commission spent a whopping N799million capital vote out of N800million it received within three weeks of receiving the budgetary allocation without going through procurement process.

The Hunkuyi-led committee also queried the commission for engaging in skewed recruitment of staff this year in contravention of the Federal Character principle despite it was asked to redress same anomaly done in 2017.

Consequently, the committee ordered NPC to furnish it with details and evidence of executing its capital projects worth N799m in compliance with extant procurement laws and as well as halt further recruitment of staff.

“From the point of view of an accountant, from the point of view of the procurement laws, I don’t know how procurement processes could concluded within three weeks and about N799 million expended. Something must be definitely wrong.

“On the recruitment you have just done, more serious crime has been committed compared to the anomaly we observed in the previous recruitment exercise. We were not carried along as stakeholders. This cannot stand,” Hunkuyi said.

The commission in its submissions by various departmental heads insisted it followed due process in executing the N799 million capital projects while its 2018 staff recruitment exercise was carried out to correct previous imbalance on its nominal roll.