By George Ozalla
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Identity and National Population, Senator Victor Umeh, has described the death of the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Dr Aminu Yusuf, as a major setback to Nigeria’s preparations for the long-awaited national population census.
Umeh spoke on Monday when he led members of the Senate committee on a condolence visit to the headquarters of the National Population Commission in Abuja to commiserate with the commission over the death of its chairman.
Yusuf died in Abuja on August 28, 2026, at the age of 66, after a brief illness, barely 10 months after his screening and confirmation by the Senate. He was sworn in as the eighth substantive chairman of the NPC by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on December 3, 2025.
The Senate committee was received by the Federal Commissioner representing Plateau State and overseeing the office of the chairman, Mrs Mary Ishaya Afan, alongside other Federal Commissioners, the Director-General and management staff of the commission.
Umeh, who described Yusuf’s death as a profound shock, said the committee was at the commission on behalf of the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, and the entire National Assembly to express its condolences to the NPC and the deceased’s family.
He recalled that he first learnt of Yusuf’s death through a Facebook post, describing the development as particularly painful coming at a time when the commission was expected to intensify preparations for the next census.
The senator was accompanied on the visit by Senators Khabeeb Mustapha and Peter Jiya, among others.
Mustapha offered prayers for the peaceful repose of the deceased’s soul.
Responding on behalf of the commission, Afan thanked the Senate committee for the visit, saying the death of the chairman had left the commission deeply shaken.
“You can see the impact of this on our faces,” she said, adding that since Yusuf’s death, the commission had not had the opportunity to sit together in the same manner.
Afan described the late chairman as a visionary leader who came into office with a seven-point agenda for repositioning the commission and had already laid the foundation for the reforms he intended to pursue.
“He has laid a very good foundation for this Commission. Whoever Mr President will bring, we will support the person to make sure that whatever our late Chairman has put on ground is accomplished,” she said.
She assured the committee that the NPC would remain committed to the national census and would continue along the path set by Yusuf, stressing that his death would not erase the work he had begun.
“Chairman has died, but his legacies are still living,” Afan said.
Umeh and members of the committee later signed the condolence register in honour of the late NPC chairman.
Yusuf, who was also known as Talban Wushishi, was a former Executive Chairman of Wushishi Local Government Area of Niger State, a member-elect of the Niger State House of Assembly and a former member of the board of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). He also served as Special Adviser on Political Affairs to the Niger State Governor before his appointment to head the NPC.
