By Saheed Ibrahim
Claim: An X user claimed that the President of Nigeria, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has directed the National Population Commission (NPC) to conduct a biometric-based census.
Full Text
Nigeria last conducted a national population and housing census in 2006, despite the global standard of holding censuses every ten years. The 2006 census officially recorded Nigeria’s population at 140 million, but current estimates suggest significant growth, making an updated census crucial for national planning and development.
Attempts to conduct another census afterwards have been unsuccessful.
In 2023, the Nigerian government, under former President Muhammadu Buhari, had scheduled a national census for May, with the aim of deploying digital technology for accuracy. However, the exercise was postponed indefinitely following the transition to President Bola Tinubu’s administration. The government cited the need for further review and resource allocation before proceeding with the exercise.
The NPC had already trained enumerators and procured digital tools, but the delay has raised concerns about the country’s ability to implement data-driven policies.
Now, on January 24, 2025, an X user @FS_Yusuf_ claimed that the President of Nigeria, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has directed the National Population Commission (NPC) to conduct a biometric-based census.
Although the X user mistakenly called the exercise a biomedical-based census, he later used the star (*) symbol to indicate correction in the comment section.
He captioned the post, “Tinubu has asked the National Population Commission to conduct a biomedical based CENSUS😩😩😩 Hello, THE-NORTH-HAS-THE-NUMBER 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Tinubu sends his weekly love letter 😭😭😭 (sic).
Screenshot of the post on X
As of January 28, the post has 707k views and has generated 1,316 reports, 8,005 likes and 128 quotes.
The post has attracted biased responses in the comment sections. For instance, @Masu Zafi also commented, “You will be shocked how the NORTHERN numbers will double especially the core northern who have minimalistically participated in Census exercises, because all this while, it is only those that participate in elections that are visible by the establishment that were counted – that number is less than one tenth of the real number !! This is an excellent development the biometrics live capture is the answer for this. (sic)”
A comment from @Last_born88 showed that he believed the claim. He wrote: “If only the East can calm down and stop wailing. Looking at every decision baba has made since coming into office he is actually not against them. Baba want to let the north know they are not who they think they are. (sic)”
Similarly, another X user, @PEC_Concepts reposted the claim with the caption, “Any census in Nigeria that is not biometrical will be heavily inflated, especially in the north. It won’t reflect anything close to the real number of the people. It’ll be an effort in futility and waste of public funds. (sic)”
Given the virality of the claim and its relevance to a critical exercise – census – in Nigeria, we conducted this fact-check.
Verification
We checked President Bola Tinubu’s official social media handles here and here to verify if he gave such a directive for a biometric-census exercise but we found no evidence supporting the claim. We could not find any credible news channel that reported such a directive.
Upon checking the NPC’s official website, we found a report that the upper legislative chamber, the Senate, has approved NPC’s 2025 budget proposal. The report shows that the Chairman of NPC, Nasir Isa Kwarra, led a delegation before the Senate Committee on National Identity Management and Population to defend its 2025 budget proposal.
The report shows that the Senate Committee approved the budget proposal of the NPC and pushed for the conduct of a national population and housing census. However, the approved proposal does not cover the conduct of the exercise.
The report reads in part: “During the session, Hon. Kwarra disclosed that the Commission’s 2025 Budget proposal does not include the upcoming Population and Housing Census, noting that a separate budget for the exercise will be submitted to the National Assembly once it receives presidential approval”.
Kwarra mentioned that the next population and housing census would be a biometric-based exercise to ensure accuracy and credibility.
However, there was no information suggesting that President Tinubu had given a directive to conduct the exercise.
In the real sense, the Chairman of the Senate Committee, Sen. Abdul Ningi expressed the willingness of the Senate to support the NPC in engaging with President Tinubu to fix the date for the national exercise.
“We will soon engage the President on this matter and formally write to him through the Senate President.
“We understand your limitations, but leveraging National Assembly support, we will convince Mr. President to prioritise the conduct of the census.
“We are not going to rest on our oars until census takes place,” he said.
Similar reports can be found here and here.
Conclusion
The claim that President Bola Tinubu has directed the National Population Commission to conduct a biometric-based census is FALSE. While the NPC has expressed plans to use biometric methods for the upcoming population and housing census to ensure accuracy, there is no evidence that President Tinubu has given an official directive for the census to begin.
The NPC is still awaiting presidential approval to set a date for the exercise, which will require a separate budget allocation from the 2025 proposal.
As such, the claim circulating online is not supported by official sources or any credible reports.