From andnetwork.com:
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is due to release the results of a census conducted in March 2006, but will probably postpone any announcements until after the 2007 general election.
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. Splits between Nigerian Muslims and Christians and among the country’s 250-300 ethnic groups are so incendiary that census officials decided to not ask citizens this year about their religious affiliation or ethnicity.
It however, does ask people where they live, which can serve as a crude index of ethnic or religious affiliation because these groups are often highly geographically concentrated, with Muslim groups such as the Hausa and Fulani in the north, and Christian and animist groups such as the Yoruba in the southwest and Ibo/Igbo in the east.
According to the Population Reference Bureau, the March census was met with protests, boycotts, charges of fraud, and at least 15 deaths. Thousands of enumerators walked off the job because they hadn’t been paid, and many people in large swaths of the country say they still haven’t been counted.
The country hasn’t conducted a census since 1991. Most estimates put the population anywhere between 120-million and 150-million.
