Lagos residents reacts to census figures
Shock, disbelief and cautious response characterised the reactions of Lagos residents to the census figures just released by the National Population Commission (NPC).
The figures showed that the population of the state is 9,013,534, with males accounting for 4,678,0200 and females going for 4,336,514.
A breakdown of the results, shows that Kano State has the highest population of 9,383,682 followed closely by Lagos' 9,013,534.
By the latest figures, Kano, with 42 local government councils, now has an edge over Lagos, which has 20 local government councils.
The fugues have also revealed that the creation of Jigawa out of Kano in 1991, has not in any appreciable manner, affected Kano's population figure, as its population density further increased.
A school teacher in Lagos, Mr John Taku, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the figure was ``unbelievable''.
He noted that the 1991 provisional census results put Lagos' as 5,685,781 and Kano's, 5,632,040.
``Now, it is surprising that Kano's population is more than Lagos' even though a state has been created from Kano,'' he added.
Taku, who teaches geography, said ``although we need to commend the NPC and the development partners for a good job, we still need to look out for marginal error as we await the full breakdown of the figures''.
According to him, ``the mass area of Kano is big, coupled with the geograpical spread of the population, but Lagos is also densely populated.''
Mr Ahmed Abudu, a Lagos based businessman, commended NPC for a job well done, saying that the margin of error was acceptable.
``The results is quite acceptable to me, especially that of Lagos and Kano figures. Kano is quite big as Lagos; the gap between them is close,'' he said.
Abudu said people easily forgot that Ogun State population flows into Lagos State, especially in the outskirts.
According to him, places like Akute- Ajuwon, Agbara, Sango-Ota, Ogijo, near Ikorodu, Mosimi, Ibafo, Agbado, Ifo and Berger - all flows into Lagos, but actually are in Ogun state.
``A large number of these people work in Lagos but resides in these settlements outside the state and were not counted among Lagos population,'' he said.
Abudu commended the NPC for a good job, and urged INEC to take a cue from the exercise by conducting credible and acceptable elections.
``People are talking about the achievements of NPC; people were counted, and now the results are out; we can now say that Nigeria has 140 million people.
``Before now, we were depending on population figures from International agencies which were at best an estimate. We now have a figure to quote,'' he added.
The President of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Mrs Toro Oladapo, also commended the NPC for a job well done.
She said although there were initial problems during the exercise,``it is commendable that the commissionmobilised resources and tackled them, which gave it credibility''.
``It is commendable that the usual crises and rejections that characterise the release of census figures in the history of census in Nigeria have been absent at least
for now,'' she added.
Commenting on the disparities between Lagos and Kano, Oladapo said people should not be emotionalabout the results.
She explained that ``a large number of people come into Lagos to do business, but do not reside in the state''.
``People should not be sentimental about certain things; we should allow facts and figures to speak; many people living in Lagos are not residents,'' she added.
Mrs Idowu Abah, an industrialist, said the census figures ``are almost perfect, because they reflect the real situation in the country, with little room for controversy''.
``I believe a good job has been done as far as the 140 million figure is concerned.
``The only grey area has to do with the Lagos State figure, which could be more,'' she said.