The paper analyzes the problem of census enumeration in Nigeria and notes that Politics and tribal sentiments constitute the major hindrance to accurate head counts in Nigeria. The history of census since the inception of the independent nation is briefly narrated and problems that led to its unreliability were identified. Marxists and Socio-psychological perspectives of ethnic identification is used to justify the struggle for numerical supremacy ubiquitous in Nigeria. The paper identifies some factors responsible for the census contention prominent among them being the allocation of political constituencies and resources and proffers that government should device an alternative way of accomplishing development devoid of census count since it has failed in Nigeria to provide the needed growth.