By Joy Odor National Assembly Correspondent
The Senate has opened a fresh front in Nigeria’s budget battles, pushing to grant constitutional financial protection to the National Population Commission after lawmakers discovered that not a single kobo of its ₦18.2 billion capital vote was released in 2025.
Angered Senators warned that a country planning elections while neglecting population data is “governing blindly”.
The outburst erupted during a tense budget defence session of the Senate Committee on National Population and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), where Commission Chairman Aminu Maida Yusuf presented the agency’s performance report and projections.
Committee Chairman Victor Umeh stunned the chamber with a blunt declaration: Nigeria treats the Independent National Electoral Commission as sacred, yet starves the institution that determines how many Nigerians actually exist.
According to him, governance begins with population knowledge not ballot papers.
“You respect INEC but ignore the body that knows the number of children, women, elderly and dependents,” he said.
“INEC is only a subset of what the population commission represents.”
He likened national planning without census data to a father feeding a family without knowing how many children live in the house.
Figures presented to lawmakers showed why tempers flared.
For the 2025 fiscal year, the Commission received an appropriation of ₦36.21 billion:
₦18.2bn — capital projects
₦1.17bn — overhead
₦16.76bn — personnel
But the most critical component capital funding needed for census preparations recorded 0% performance.
“You got nothing,” a senator said during the hearing.
“₦18 billion appropriated — zero released.”
While projects received nothing, salaries exceeded expectations.
Personnel costs hit 103% performance, with ₦17.33bn paid through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, surpassing the approved amount by over ₦506 million.
Overhead releases stood at ₦682.44 million — just 41.8%.
Dr. Yusuf explained the excess personnel spending came from centrally processed payments and statutory adjustments handled by the Accountant General’s office.
But lawmakers insisted any spending beyond appropriations must strictly follow parliamentary approval.
The Senate revealed it has already begun amending the Constitution to place the Population Commission on first-line charge, the same protected funding status enjoyed by key national institutions.
Umeh urged influential legislators, including former governors, to mobilise political support to rescue census preparations from perpetual postponement.
Lawmakers warned that education, healthcare, infrastructure and security planning will remain distorted until Nigeria conducts a credible, technology-driven census backed by guaranteed funding.
They argued the Commission must be insulated from annual budget politics if the nation hopes to plan its future accurately.
The message from the chamber was sharp: Until Nigeria counts its people, it cannot truly govern them.
