The National Population Commission (NPC) has ruled out public holidays during the forthcoming census exercise billed to hold between May 3 and 7, 2023.
Explaining the reason for this, the spokesperson for the NPC, Isiaka Yahaya, told The Punch in an interview on Friday, March 31, 2023, that public holidays will allow people to move freely from one place to another.
However, he said, based on past experiences, the government may decide to impose restrictions on movement but that has not yet been confirmed.
Yahaya’s words: “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.
