Islamic Forum of Nigeria,has advised the Federal Government to postpone this year’s census to another date after Ramadan.
The National Population Commission has already fixed the 2023 exercise by next March/April 2023 which coincides with Ramadan, a month long fasting period for Muslim faithful.
Executive Secretary of the Forum , Professor Salisu Shehu,conveyed the group’s plea in a statement on Sunday.
He explained that the forum has observed with serious concern that, the time scheduled for the conduct of the national population census, appears to be the month which Muslims worldwide observe their obligatory fasting.
He said that, the exercise is a very rigorous one, involving travels across the entire region, where ad-hoc staff can be posted to any part of the country, and remote areas away from their places of origin.
He emphasized that “generally, Muslims, especially those that will travel to remote non-Muslim areas will not even find the convenience and the conducive environment to observe their spiritual duties in Ramadan like Tarawih prayers at nights, the Sahur and Iftar,Tafseer”
According to him, muslims all over the country, staff involved and the people to be enumerated, would find it difficult to cope with the hardship, that may be occasioned by travels in long distances and rigors of the exercise.
He begged Federal Government of Nigeria, to consider the plight the population of over one-Hundred and twenty mllion (120,000,000) Nigerians and therefore, prevail on the National Population Commission, to postpone the exercise to a more conducive and convenient time after Ramadan.
He stressed that,given the ongoing difficulty of the new bank notes scarcity, coupled with staying at home for five days during the exercise, Nigerians would definitely face more difficulties that also needs to be considered by the National Population Commission.
