The National Population Commission (NPC) has stated that there will be no public holidays during the upcoming census, which is scheduled to take place between May 3 and 7, 2023.
WITHIN NIGERIA understands that the NPC’s spokesperson, Isiaka Yahaya, confirmed the development in an interview with The Punch on Friday.
According to him, there will be no holiday during the exercise, but there may be some movement restrictions.
Yahaya explained that there will be no holiday because people do not typically stay at home during holidays.
He said;
There won’t be a public holiday, because during public holidays people can move from one place to another, but there may be restrictions on movement, based on past experiences. However, I can’t confirm that now. The government will come out with a categorical statement on that.
Foreigners will be counted as long as they are in Nigeria. Everybody on the land space of Nigeria will be counted. If you look at the definition of Census, it is the enumeration of all persons. It did not say, only citizens. So, everyone resident in the country during the census period will be counted.
There will be a section that will ask if you are a foreigner or not and the country they are from. It is part of the data to be collected, so it is not separate.
Yahaya denied claims that anyone who refuses to present themselves for the exercise would be sanctioned.
He added:
It is a rumor that people who refuse to be counted will be sanctioned. All I know is that we have encouraged all Nigerians to make themselves available for counting because the exercise is in the national interest. There are actually offences that we do not want to emphasize, but we do not have the power and capacity to lock anyone up.