Nigeria has postponed a census that was scheduled to take plac this week and the next government will set a new date, Nigeria’s Information Ministry said on Saturday, announcing the latest delay in the country’s first census in 17 years.
The census was scheduled to take place from May 3 to 7, but the ministry said more time was needed to plan it. It will now be led by the new government of president-elect Bola Tinubu, who will take office at the end of May.
This is the second postponement this year of the census, whose results affect the sharing of oil revenues and political representation among 36 states and 300 ethnic groups in Africa’s most populous country.
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Earlier accusations were discredited following disputes between the three main ethnicities, Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo.
The National Population Commission said Nigerians would not be asked about their race and religion during the census because of “the sensitive nature of these questions and the need to save census data from controversy and unnecessary attention”.
Nigeria is split almost evenly between the predominantly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south.
Nigeria’s population is estimated at over 200 million and the United Nations expects that number to double by 2050.
This would make Nigeria the third most populous country in the world after China and India, surpassing the United States.
