The Census of Nigeria, 1931

Extract

The accuracy of a Census return is taken for granted in England; it is only when we turn to Africa that we realize how far it is the outcome of close and efficient administration, and of a people willing and able to do their part. The reader who passes from these fair-seeming tables to study the methods by which they were compiled, will conclude, all the more if he knows his Africa, that neither the will nor even the money are enough to obtain the information necessary for wise government. Africa presents us here with something of a vicious circle; knowledge cannot far outrun good administration; administration is therefore condemned to be empirical. Fortunately, however, the circle is not quite complete, and readers of Africa know that the Institute is doing its part to take advantage of the gap.