By Ayodele Oni
In a country where poverty is assuming a wider dimension, a whooping sum of N200 billion has just been flushed down the drain on the botched national head count.
The population census was billed to take place in March before it was shifted to early this month before its eventual indefinite postponement and become one of the issues to be handed over to incoming administration.
The Chairman National Population Commission (NPC) Nasir Isa-Kwarra on Thursday disclosed that N200bn has been spent so far on preparations for the postponed 2023 housing and population census.
Isa-Kwarra said this in Abuja during a breakfast meeting with media executives.
The NPC chairman pointed out that though N800bn was budgeted for the exercise, only N224bn had been released by the Federal Government.
President Muhammadu Buhari postponed the census after series of meeting with stakeholders in late April.
The government said the incoming administration of President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu will decide on the date the exercise will hold.
The NPC, after the official announcement of the postponement, told reporters that the exercise was postponed to calm tension in the country.
