The National Population Commission (NPC) said the 2023 population and housing census would not ask about religion and ethnicity.

The commission said the decision was made after wide consultation with stakeholders, taking into account the sensitive nature of these two issues in Nigeria.

In a statement, the commission’s director of public affairs, Isiaka Yahaya, noted that religion and ethnicity are, arguably, important clues in any country’s demographics.

He however said that due to the volatile nature of these elements in our national discourse, it was agreed that religion and ethnicity should not be included in the census questionnaire in order to isolate the process and results. the identification of useless controversies.

The commission therefore urges the general public to cooperate with its enumerators to ensure a successful trial census exercise in its quest to provide the country with a credible, reliable and acceptable census.

According to the statement: “The attention of the National Population Commission has been drawn to a misleading WhatsApp message which claimed that the next population and housing census would cover questions on religion.

The message alleged that there were certain parts (of the questionnaire) where the respondents had to tick their religion, however, the Islamic religion was divided into (sects) while Christianity was not, the objective, as it is claimed, is to show that Muslims “are small in the country.

For the avoidance of doubt, the 2023 census and the ongoing test census, like the previous censuses of 1991 and 2006, do not include any questions on religion and ethnicity.
The commission calls on everyone to disregard the false and misleading message which is clearly the antics of the troublemakers.