The Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly, Distinguished Senator Victor Umeh, has emphasized the need for the Federal Government (FG) to urgently conduct Population and Housing Census to aid its development planning in the country.
According to media reports, the Chairman, Senate Committee on National Identity and Population, who made the statement during the launch of the 2025 State of the World Population (SWOP) Report held at the Reiz Continental Hotel, noted that “without national census, Nigeria will continue to grope in the dark in her planning and development.”
The SWOP Report was officially launched by the National Population Commission (NPC), in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with the theme, “The Real Fertility Crisis: The Pursuit of Reproductive Health Agency in a Changing World.”
Umeh maintained that the conduct of national census was imperative, as according to him, it would enable the government to know the exact number of Nigeria’s population, the number of the unemployed, population distribution, among others.
Stating further that the national planning and development would be easier with national census, the Anambra Central Senator remarked: “Today, nobody knows the actual population of Nigeria. We are just using estimates. Some people say we are 200 million people, others say we are 220 million people, while some others say, we are about 230 million people.
“These are projections. And that is why there is no alternative to having a national census.”
The parliamentarian pledged that the National Assembly was irrevocably committed to ensuring that Population and Housing Census is conducted soon.
He called on lawmakers in the Federal Legislature to resist the urge to legislate the number of children each Nigerian couple should give birth to.
Umeh, while speaking on the State of the World Population, said “it is very difficult to regulate control birth,” adding that “emphasis should be given on sex education among the adolescent girls to control birth rate.”