The Nigerian census is coming to an end, but a state like Lagos, Nigeria's commercial nerve might likely ask for an extension. Lagos is Nigeria's most populous state. A good number of countries cannot boast of Lagos' population.

The census is another opportunity for Nigerians to know how much really we are in world's most populous black nation. We already have a sixth of the African population, with this census however we are waiting for the manifestation. The last count said we were 88.9 million people. A lot of people have estimated 150 million, a lot have estimated more and a few people, less than that.





I got counted yesterday and I felt great about it. My ellation was not because I have so much to benefit from the head count as an individual, but once again I felt I belong in Africa's greatest (emerging) economy.

I overheard some group of people discussing the census. The topic was whether or not they will benefit from giving up 3-5 minutes of their time to be counted. While a close friend outrightly said it will amount to be waste to time and resources, many hold the opinion that maybe, okay maybe, some dividends of democracy will eventually trickle down to their pots of soup.





We do not use the social security number system in Nigeria and I am not sure our births and deaths are perfectly monitored and well documented. It used to be well documented I know, as I still have a copy of my birth certificate.These little things have proved in developed nations to be very good ways of monitoring the population of a country. I hope the government will go a step further to implement proper ways of monitoring the population of Nigeria so we don't have to count ourselves every 10 years.