ABUJA (Reuters):
NIGERIA LAUNCHED a census yesterday but logistical hitches delayed counting in many places, increasing pressure on organisers who also have to contend with political tensions that have derailed previous headcounts.
Censuses are controversial in Nigeria because rival ethnic and religious groups have tried to use them to assert their numerical superiority and claim a larger share of oil revenues and political representation.
The census is the first for 15 years in Africa's most populous country, and President Olusegun Obasanjo appealed to his countrymen to ensure its success by keeping politics out of it.
"Census-taking is not politics and should therefore not be a contest for political supremacy," Obasanjo said in a television and radio broadcast to launch the count.
Nigeria's population is split about equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south, and among 300 ethnic groups.
Ethnic and religious violence has killed at least 14,000 people in the past seven years.
