新媒网 · 跨境数据社区

UNTIL LOCAL GOVERNANCE WORKS IN NIGERIA, CENSUS DATA WILL REMAIN UNRELIABLE The Federal Government has announced plans to conduct a new census to update Nigeria’s population database. However, without effective local governance, any census conducted in Nigeria will be neither accurate nor reliable. Why? In every census exercise, local government areas (LGAs), states, and regions manipulate population figures to secure a larger share of federal allocations. Over the years, there have been reports of census fraud, where not just people but even animals—dogs, goats, and cattle—have allegedly been counted to inflate numbers. In some cases, foreigners are included in the headcount, further distorting the data. This widespread manipulation stems from a flawed system where states and LGAs depend on federal allocations for survival. As long as government funding is tied to population figures rather than actual local productivity, census rigging will persist. The real solution lies in strengthening local governance through resource control—ensuring that states and LGAs generate and manage their own revenues based on local productivity. If regions are incentivized to thrive on their own economic output rather than federal handouts, the motivation to manipulate census figures will disappear. Until Nigeria embraces true local governance with financial autonomy, census exercises will remain a waste of time and resources. This is one of the factors that informs the need to restructure Nigeria.