Census Fraud Known As “Bashiga” Won’t Occur In 2023: NPC Commissioner

There won’t be any “bashiga” or data fraud or manipulation to benefit a specific region in the next National Population and Housing Census, according to Charles Ogwa, a national population commissioner.

The federal commissioner of the National Population Commission said that the commission’s ad hoc workers would be unable to alter data on NPC’s equipment.

On Thursday in Calabar, Mr. Ogwa, who represents Cross River in the NPC, said this in response to inquiries from the media. Despite the federal government delaying the census, he said that the NPC was still making preparations.

The NPC federal commissioner insisted that the commission’s technology provided no room for fraud, falsification, or intervention. He emphasized that the pilot census had included the appropriate tests.

Every piece of information gathered is transferred to the same server from the enumerators to the supervisors for further transmission to local government authorities, according to Mr. Ogwa. “We have a standardized digital technology system for the entire country,” he said. Therefore, as an enumerator, you cannot lie or fake data since the data quality assistants will discover your actions instantly and do a confirmatory test for that ward.

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According to the NPC commissioner, “The principle of ‘bashiga’ (no entrance) will not work in this census because if an enumerator is refused entrance into a household, he will key in a blank for the household, which is a disadvantage to that community.”

Mr. Ogwa pointed out that even if the gadgets didn’t record biometrics, which would have been in violation of the National Identity Management Commission’s (NIMC) responsibilities, there would still be data compatibility.

He continued by saying that no government has done so because using biometrics for census purposes would bring extra problems.

For instance, some Nigerians claim to have been born in 1950 on their national identity cards (NIN), but when it comes time for the census, the same individuals would claim to have been born in 1955. The system would have certain difficulties; as a result, Mr. Ogwa said.

He gave the citizens of Cross River the reassurance that the commission “is ever ready to conduct a digital census that will generate reliable and acceptable data that will be used to plan for the state.”

According to Mr. Ogwa, “The postponement only gives us more time to address some real issues, mostly with a compendium of localities, which will minimize litigation in Cross River after the exercise.”