Getting 2017 Census right through EAD

Population census, according to the United Nations, is the process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing and publishing demographic, economic and social data pertaining to all persons in a country or in a well-defined part of a country. In order to effectively enumerate all these persons within a reasonable period of time, it becomes imperative to […]

Population census, according to the United Nations, is the process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, analyzing and publishing demographic, economic and social data pertaining to all persons in a country or in a well-defined part of a country. In order to effectively enumerate all these persons within a reasonable period of time, it becomes imperative to divide the whole land mass of the country into small units that can be easily covered by a team of enumerators. This, in essence, constitutes the Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD), which is one of the core preparatory activities for the census exercise. Enumeration Areas are also referred to as Census Clusters or Census Blocks (where street address system is adopted like in the USA).
The EAD constitutes the foundation upon which the entire census architecture stands. It forms the basis for the planning and execution of the census project. The EAD is the vehicle that drives the entire census process in the pre census (dividing the country into work assignment areas and estimating the cost of the census project as well as planning logistics for deployment of enumerators), actual enumeration (deploying the enumerators to the field during actual counting, quality control and monitoring) and post census period (preparing thematic maps, providing for aggregation and/or disaggregation of population data into states, LGAs, political wards, and localities as well as basis for further post-census surveys) .  Some of the critical issues that made previous censuses in Nigeria contentious were attributable poor quality of the EAD projects which were marked by irregularities such as delineation of either undersized EAs or oversized EAs.
The quality of Enumeration Areas has also been adversely affected by interference by the political class, and some demographically uninformed elite in the society who felt that the number of EAs in their communities would determine how large their census figures would be. The defects in the EAD project became visible and pronounced during the actual enumeration when areas not demarcated could not be counted or some EAs were too large for the enumerators to count during the census.
Conscious of the fiasco that bedeviled past EAD exercises, the National Population Commission opted for a meticulous and scientific approach in the EAD for the 2017 Census. The first phase of the EAD took place from 26th November to 16th December 2015 in one Local Government Area each in six states (one from each geopolitical zone of Nigeria) and the FCT while the second phase will take place in the remaining 29 states from 22nd February to 20th March 2016. At the end of the first and second phases of the EAD, one local government area each would have been demarcated in all states of the federation and the FCT.
At the centre of the Commission’s strategy to ensure the success of the EAD project is the comprehensive deployment of Satellite Imagery of very high resolution and an additional deployment of android machines for attribute data collection, in a manner that is unprecedented in the history of census takings in Nigeria. 
Preparatory to the EAD exercise, the Commission received from the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGF) High Resolution Satellite Imageries for over 200 cities /towns and 80% national coverage of 2.5 metre Resolution Imageries required for demarcation of rural areas of the country.  Well annotated image maps have been found to be easy to use, and very convenient with reasonably high level of accuracy. It involves no measuring as measurements are already implied and gives room for checking errors as all areas not covered by demarcators could easily be noticed on the imagery. Even if the boundaries of EAs or localities are inaccessible on ground, they are visible on the imagery.
Armed with the EA maps, the demarcation exercise becomes as simple as ABC for the demarcators because they do not require complicated calculation of errors of survey closures. The approach is simple and straightforward. As the demarcator steps out, he/she has a clear idea of places to be carved out as Enumeration Areas on the maps prepared. The methodology requires that all the houses and structures seen on the maps are identified. His simple task is to be familiar with the areas to demarcate these structures which can be easily seen from the satellite maps and go ahead to number the houses.  Thereafter, he/she will administer necessary forms to collect vital household information from all the buildings and assign tentative building and household numbers to the buildings through the use of android devices with appropriate softwares. Demarcators will indicate how many households found in each of the buildings. Through this approach, it will be impossible for them to leave any house out in demarcation.  The utility of the deployment of satellite imagery is illustrated by the practical experience of the writer while on field assignment during the Phase One of the EAD. After a two week intensive training in Akwanga, I was posted to Kwali Area Council of the FCT for fieldwork and one of the places of assignment was Kilankwa I, a remote village of about 10 kilometres of dusty road off the Abuja – Lokoja Highway. Armed with the satellite Imagery, all the buildings in the village including the barns, toilets and bathrooms, etc. could be identified on the maps and were therefore listed in the forms and numbered on both the buildings and the maps. In cases of structures recently built, it was easy to identify such buildings based on relationship with existing buildings. The location of the (coordinates or actual geographic position relative to the earth) of the new structures were taken through the GPS and recorded on the form. This will therefore make it possible to count persons in such houses during the census.
After all the houses in the village and its vicinity had been identified and demarcated, there was still something on the map that showed the presence of a settlement far located from even the remotely located Kilankwa 1 village. With the aid of a guide and using bike on the largely unpaved road, we were able to locate a Fulani settlement still located at another 10 kilometres from kilankwa Village and the less than 10 huts in the settlement were demarcated. Without the satellite imagery, there was no way anyone could have imagined another settlement existed after Kilankwa I.
With the meticulous, gradual and scientific approach including the introduction of android equipment and software for building and household attribute data collection into the Enumeration Area Demarcation process, it is certain that a solid foundation is being laid not only for the conduct of the 2017 Census but also future activities aimed at collecting the demographic data in Nigeria as the exercise will yield the much awaited national frame for statistical data collection.

Dr. Yahaya is a Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the headquarters of the National Population Commission. He participated in the 1991 and 2006 Population Censuses.