Citizens not Captured in 2016 Nigerian Census may Lose Their Citizenship

The chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Mr. Festus Odimegwu in a controversial statement said that any Nigerian who is not captured in the 2016 National Census will not be recognised as a Nigerian after the exercise. He also added that Religion and Ethnicity which were excluded from the previous demographic surveys will be included in the 2016 National Census. Mr. Odimegwu who spoke at the Second National Family Planning Conference in Abuja equally stated that the National Population Commission would resort to sale of data to the private sector should the Government fail to provide the over N600 Billion  required for the exercise which would capture Biometric Data for over five years. He argued that the high population of Nigeria is an asset rather than a liability and that capturing adequate data and biometric information of the citizens would help in national planning including healthcare delivery, education, security and the economy. It would be recalled that Nigeria had her last National Census in 2006. The census which is done in decades is expected in 2016 by the National Population Commission (NPC), the agency entrusted with that responsibility.