The United States Government on Tuesday
in Abuja ruled out any financial assistance for Nigeria to conduct its
nationwide census whose preparation had been dogged by shortage of
funds. Although the population census had been
shifted to 2017, feelers from the National Population Commission,
indicated that it may not hold because President Muhammadu Buhari had
yet to make a proclamation on it.
The American government specifically
told Nigeria that it would not fund the exercise because “it is not
somebody else’s census, it is your census.”
The Office Director, Health Population
and Nutrition Office, United States Agency for International
Development, Dr. Nancy Lowenthal, ruled out financial assistance in an
interview with The PUNCH, during the opening ceremony of a
training workshop for the members of staff of the NPC on the 2017
population and housing census organised by the United States Census
Bureau with support from USAID.
She said,
“It is important to stress
that the United States government does not fund the census of another
country. But what Nigerian government can do is to collaborate with
USAID, the USCB and other US agencies that can help to provide a strong
technical assistance to develop the best possible, credible and accurate
census.
“It is very important for the Nigerian
government at all levels to recognise what a census does. It is a
demographic information about your country: how many men, how many
women, and how many children are in Nigeria. There are also information
about household income and other aspects of demography in a census.
Without a credible census in every single community, you cannot have a
data. This is fundamental to governing your country. It is, therefore,
fundamental to government to find the resources to finance its census.
“It is important for any government to
be able to fund its census because without it, you will not be able to
do other components. It is not apportioning the Federal Government with
funding, this is real planning; the commissioners should know the type
of vaccine coverage and how many children are out there. It is not
somebody else’s census but the census of the government of Nigeria as
represented by Mr. President through the chairman of the NPC down
thorough all the structures in the federal, states, local governments
and rural levels and it is your census.”
The Chairman of the NPC, Chief Eze
DuruIheoma (SAN), had last year, during a press briefing in
commemoration of the 2015 World Population Day with the theme,
“Vulnerable population in emergencies,” hinted that the population
census earlier scheduled for this year would not take place due to poor
budgetary allocation.
No financial assistance for census, US tells Nigeria
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