Nigeria National Population Commission (NPC), don tell Nigerians say dem no lose anytin if dem no travel go dia state of origin for di final stage of di national census wey go occur in di next few weeks.

NPC go conclude di last stage of counting to sabi wetin be di population of Nigeria, from 3 to 7 May 2023, for process wey di commission say dem bin don dey execute for some time now.

Di director publicity of di commission, Isiaka Yahaya, say di reason why Nigerians no need travel to dia states of origin, na sake of say di stage wey di census dey now, dem don already conclude di Enumeration Area Demarcation EDA.

“Di preparations for di census bin start much earlier. We bin start first wit di Enumeration Area Demarcation wey we don conclude.”

Enumeration Area Demarcation for Nigeria census mean di division of di whole kontri into small small portions of land wey go easy for di enumerators – pipo wey go visit individual houses, collect informate - to cover.

E add as dem don finish wit di Enumeration Area Demarcation, plus determine how many people fit dey live for one household for a particular area.

"Di Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) wey we go give di enumerators get di list of household and estimate of how may pipo dey live dia," im tok.

Census malpractice

Oga Yahaya add say some measures dey ground already to make sure dem prevent malpractice during dis census.

Malpractice na major problem wey don dey face census for Nigeria and tok tok pesin for di commission say e get two main causes for dis.

"For census e get two sources of error, dat na content error and coverage error. Content error get to fdo wit di response wey pipo provide and weda dem dey consistent.

"And coverage error get to do wit either over counting or under counting or double counting and oda forms of malpractice."

For many years, dis na one of di palava wey dey cause over counting and under counting pipo.

Two main reasons dey to blame for census palava for di kontri dey two. Oda reasons till dey sha.

Di first na religious and cultural beliefs. For di northern part of Nigeria especially, women, particularly wives no dey allowed to participate for census. Diafore under counting dey occur.

Still, di real population of di north don remain mata of serious debate for di kontri becos, even wit di restrictions on women, di north get di largest population.

Dis controversy don create distrust among Nigerians as many no trust di process of di census.

Di second be say, di National Poulation Commission dey give false results for census.

For instance, many beleive say di last Nigeria census wey dem do for 2006 na fake. Many complain say di number wey di commission publish pass di number of pipo for di kontri.

For di 2006 census, reports bin fly upanda say some NPC officias chop bribe from goment official.

But Yahaya say, "for dis exercise we don put in place measures wey go stop over counting and under counting." E add say wit di PDA, e go "difficult for enumerators to start padding households or create fake household outside wetin we don already load into di enumeration area."

Weda or not di PDA go work or go di way of di BVAS wey Nigeria take conduct dia latest elections remain for us to see.

Why census dey important

Census dey very important for any kontri as e dey help goment know wetin be di size of di population for di kontri and how many pipo dey live for a particular area.

E dey also help to determine di number of pipo wey dey work and pipo wey no get work.

Wit all dis informate, federal goment go fit to formulate policies plus properly distribute resources for di different areas, ant to determine how much revenue allocation each state go get.

Di commission don also receive all di equipment wey dem need for di exercise, and wetin remain na to configure am, Yahaya tok.

E add say dem don train most of dia ad hoc staff and soon dem go complete training of supervisors.