Departments within the Commission include Cartography, Census, Finance & Accounts, Human Resources and Administration, ICT, Audit, Population Management and Development, Planning and Research, Population Studies, Public Affairs, Procurement, Special Duties, Vital Registration, and Legal Services, General Services.
[7] The National Population Commission (NPC) is a Nigerian government agency established by Section 140 (1) of the 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is also mandated to undertake demographic sample surveys, compile, collate and publish migration and civil registration statistics as well as monitor the country's population policy.
In 1981, President Shehu Shagari inaugurated Alhaji Abdulrahman Okene, as chairman of the commission, alongside 19 members representing each state of the federation.
When General Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the Shagari presidency on 31 December 1983, the constitution was suspended and the commission was dissolved.
In 1988, Alhaji Shehu Musa, Makaman Nupe was appointed by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, as chairman of the commission alongside six members.
Empowered by the 1999 Constitution, in October 2001, the Olusegun Obasanjo administration inaugurated Chief Samu’ila Danko Makama as chairman of the Commission alongside 37 members representing each state in Nigeria and the FCT.
In June 2012 Chief Eze Festus Odimegwu was inaugurated as chairman of the commission alongside 37 members, one each from the 36 states of Nigeria, and one representing the Federal Capital Territory.
[10] On 15 October 2020, the Senate of Nigeria confirmed the appointment of Nasir Isa Kwarra as the chairman and eleven commissioners for the Commission.
These counts were all confined to the Lagos Colony and its environs, and marked the sequential beginning of the British decennial census tradition in Nigeria.
[10] The Women's War of 1929 in Calabar and Owerri provinces in the Eastern region prevented the enumeration of major municipalities in these areas in 1931.
Similarly, some areas in the Northern provinces were not counted as some census staff were re-posted to anti-locust duties as a result of the raging locust invasion in some parts of the North.
The 1952/1953 Population Census was marred by gross under-enumeration as people were suspicious of the motives of the exercise having been broken by the Second World War.
[20] Eze Festus Odimegwu who was appointed Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), in June 2012, He made several unguarded statements amongst which was his condemnation of the census of 2006.
Population census in Nigeria carries political and religious implications, thus, some Nigerians, especially of Northern extraction rose in opposition to his comments.
[21] Governor of Kano State in Northern Nigeria, Rabiu Kwankwaso, visited President at the time Goodluck Jonathan and demanded the dismissal of Odimegwu.
With World War II disrupting the previous cycle of the decennial census, many Nigerians were suspicious of the purpose, and refused to be counted.
[23] Population figures at the time determined a lot: employment into the federal civil service, revenue allocation, and number of a region's seats in parliament.