By Emmanuel Nduka
Nigeria is scheduled to hold a national census between March and April 2023, 16 years after the last census was held in 2006.
This was part of the resolutions reached at the Council of State meeting held in Abuja on Thursday.
Thursday’s meeting was chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari and was attended by former Heads of State – Abdusalami Abubakar, Goodluck Jonathan, and Yakubu Gowon.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Boss Mustapha, Boss Mustapha; National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno and the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari were also in attendance.
State Governors who attended included: Hope Uzodinma of Imo State; Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State.
Other issues discussed at the meeting include prerogative of mercy in which 159 persons out of 162 are to be granted various levels of pardon by the President.
The Council also briefed on security situations across the country and President Buhari is to hold a security meeting with security chiefs, based on the Council’s presentations, on Tuesday.
The Government will also confer national honours on 434 Nigerians, the first honours granted by President Buhari since he assumed office in 2015.
The last population and housing census in Nigeria, which took place in 2006, put the country’s population at 140 million but currently, Nigeria’s actual population is uncertain, some analysts argue.
Nigerian authorities have been relying on estimates from Worldometer, an arm of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, to guage the country’s population.
At the moment, Nigeria’s population is estimated as 206 million people, according to details released by the National Population Commission (NPC) in 2020.
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