The lawmakers said the prevailing insecurity in the country will make it impossible to conduct a successful national census.
The House of Representatives has rejected a motion seeking to ask President Bola Tinubu to fix a date for the conduct of the national census.
The House rejected the motion moved by Dominic Okafor (LP, Anambra) and Patrick Umoh (PDP, Akwa-Ibom), which sought to urge Mr Tinubu to declare a date for the conduct of the 2023 census to facilitate accurate economic planning.
The national census was last conducted in the country in 2006.
The last administration had announced plans to conduct the 2023 census, however, there seems not to be any enthusiasm by the current administration to proceed with the exercise.
The 2023 census was billed to take place across the country between 3 and 5 May but former President Muhammadu Buhari postponed the exercise indefinitely.
The then Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had said that a new date would be announced, however, it was not done before the end of the administration.
Debate
Leading the debate on the motion, Mr Okafor stated that Nigeria needs the data that would be derived from the census for development.
He noted that the census provides accurate population data that is crucial for planning, policy formulation, resource allocation, and government programme implementation.
Mr Okafor said this data is especially important at this time when the federal government and state governments are working on giving palliatives to vulnerable citizens and also planning other social services.
"Data collected in the 2006 population census is far from reality in 2023 and cannot validly form a solid base for the formation of national economic policies that will aid the federal government in administering viable national planning," he said.
The lawmaker said the National Population Commission (NPC) spent N200 billion out of the N800 billion budgeted for the planning and mid-execution of the census.
"If the population and housing census fails to take place within 12 months, the information gathered across the country would become stale, a waste of resources and the country would have to increase costs of gathering fresh information," he said.
Speaking against the motion, Ahmed Jaha (APC, Borno), said census is not feasible because of the insecurity ravaging many parts of the country.
He argued that many people displaced in the North-west, North-east and other parts of the country due to insecurity would be left out of the headcount.
"In Nigeria, we are not ready to conduct censuses now because most places are not accessible," he said
The lawmaker said he is "strongly" against the motion, and asked his colleagues to reject it.
Ademorin Kuye (APC, Lagos), who supported the motion, urged his colleagues to pass it. He said for there to be proper planning at the state and federal levels, a census should be conducted.
The lawmaker said Mr Jaha did not take time to look at the prayers of the motion appropriately, adding that the concerns he raised were in existence when the money was previously appropriated for the conduct of the census.
But the motion was also opposed by Inua Garuba (APC, Gombe), who said the census is impossible in the face of general insecurity. He said enumerators won't be able to operate outside most capitals.
"Some few kilometres away from some state capital nobody will have the courage to start conducting census of people," he said.
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Mr Garuba's position was echoed by Kama Kama (APC, Ebonyi), who stated that most places in the South-east are not accessible.
The former Deputy Speaker of the House, Idris Wase (APC, Plateau) said while the census will lead to "good planning for development", the insecurity in the country has to be addressed first.
"We are deceiving ourselves if we have not secured ourselves but want to conduct the census. The situation is not right," he said.
The motion was rejected when it was put to a voice vote by Abbas Tajudeen, the speaker of the house.
Gaza Jonathan (SDP, Nasarawa) proposed that all the prayers should be expunged except the one which calls for the investigation of the National Population Commission for the money expended on the planned census.
His amendment was voted for when it was subjected to a voice vote by Mr Tajudeen and it passed.
