The National Population Commission, NPC, has said that the forthcoming population and housing census will not canvass questions on religious affiliation.
This was contained in a statement by the NPC Director of Public Affairs, Isiaka Yahaya in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said this was a reaction to an audio tape going viral on WhatsApp that religious affiliations of respondents will be canvassed, hence, the Commission urged Nigerians to dismiss such claims.
Yahaya called on the public to “Extend maximum cooperation to the enumerators for the sake of delivering a credible, reliable and acceptable 2023 Population and Housing Census data for national development and planning.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Commission wishes to state unequivocally that the 2023 Population and Housing Census will not canvass questions on religion and religious affiliations of respondents”.
He further explained that the decision to exclude religion along with ethnicity from the census questionnaire was taken in due consideration of the sensitive nature of these issues within the Nigerian polity and the need to save the census data from needless controversies and attention.
“The Commission carried out extensive consultation with data users and stakeholders in coming up with the questions to be canvassed in the 2023 Population and Housing Census in May 2023.
“The overarching goal of the questionnaire is to generate data that will facilitate sustainable development. The questionnaire is robust and includes demographic characteristics of respondents and other socio-economic characteristics but without any question whatsoever on religion and Ethnicity.”
PIAK
