Humanists express concerns over the exclusion of questions about religious or nonreligious affiliations in the 2023 census. For a country where most people are often described as deeply religious, and religion is a device for discrimination, persecution, and murder, this omission is a grave error. It is a serious shortcoming in the forthcoming head count. Responding to a viral message that suggested that the next population and housing census would feature questions on religion, the National Population Commission (NPC) noted that there would be no questions on religion. The NPC said: “it was agreed that religion and ethnicity should not be included in the Census questionnaire to insulate the process and outcomes from unnecessary controversies”. Is that not a lame excuse? This explanation is a pretext to continue to misrepresent religious and irreligious demographics in the country. The commission did not state who agreed to exclude the religion question and why. Look, one of the main goals of a census is to understand demographic patterns and shifts. Census is a mechanism to collect data on aspects of a population. People rely on the census to understand details of the population including the age, sex, religion, ethnicity or race. And if questions on religion are excluded, what then is the essence of this program? What information would the head count provide? What is volatile or controversial about providing information about religious belief and nonbelief in Nigeria?
Humanists are nonreligious and irreligious individuals and include atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and other nontheistic and religion-free persons. According to the information out there, the nonreligious constitute less than 2 percent of the population. But many humanists are of the notion that Nigeria’s religious demographics are bogus and bloated. That the irreligious population is not adequately captured due to entrenched religious politics in the country. The nonreligious constituency is growing especially with the advent of the internet and social media that have liberated many from the grip of religious control and coercion. Many religion and god-free people who live in Muslim or Christian-dominated areas are mistakenly regarded as Muslims or Christians. They are counted and included in the over 50 percent Muslims and over 40 percent Christians that are often quoted to be in the country. Humanists are concerned because it is only when religious questions are included in the census that there would be reliable data on religious and irreligious patterns and changes in Nigeria.
To register these concerns, the Humanist Association of Nigeria requested to meet with the National Population Commission. But the request, sent to the commission last year, has, so far, been ignored. The proposal has not been granted apparently because the commission does not reckon with the non religious constituency in the country. The NPC should understand that Nigeria has a diverse population that include believers and non believers. It should be open to understanding and appreciating the needs and interests of all Nigerians including the non religious population. The NPC has a duty to capture the changes in (ir)religious patterns and professions in the country. The irreligious population should be counted, and information about them should be contained in the 2023 census.
Leo Igwe is a Board member of the Humanist Association of Nigeria and Humanists International.
Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria
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