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From Fred Itua, Abuja
Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Nasir Isa Kwarra, has assured that the 2023 national population and housing census would be free, fair and credible.
He stated this in Abuja, yesterday, when Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Lai Mohammed inaugurated the publicity committee.
Kwarra said the overarching vision of the 2023 census was to produce not only accurate, reliable and acceptable census data, but also an inclusive and user-friendly data that would be used by all segments of the society for development planning and critical programme interventions. He assured that the quality of data to be generated would meet international best standards.
He said the commission would deploy full digital technology in the conduct of the census and that it would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that results of the exercise was acceptable to all Nigerians.
“I wish to use this opportunity to reassure my fellow country men and women and the international community that the National Population Commission is irrevocably committed to ensuring that everything about the 2023 census is done rightly and professionally. We have the clear vision, commitment and capacity to deliver on this historic mandate,” he said.
Kwarra said this aspiration had informed the methodology and quality of preparations for the census in the last few years.
He stressed the need for advocacy, publicity and public enlightenment saying the committee inaugurated had a great job at hand.
“The job before it and indeed this committee is phenomenal, this is in consideration of the need to inform, educate and enlighten Nigerians on the scope of the census which will involve the counting of every person resident in Nigeria during the conduct of the exercise and that it will take place simultaneously in every household in the country.
“Given this scenario, information, they say rules the world, as such, targeted advocacy and sustained publicity is no doubt imperative to the successful conduct of the census. This becomes even more crucial in view of the fact that the census is taking place immediately after the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
Therefore, the mobilisation of critical stakeholders to support and take ownership of the process to achieve the desired outcome is imperative and it hinges absolutely on our ability to speak to the people in the language that will galvanize and mobilise them to participate in the 2023 census.
Minister of Information, Mohammed said the 2023 census was a legacy programme of the Buhari administration.
He said the country last held a population census in 2006, about 17 years ago, which he said was like an eternity viewed against the importance of population census to national development.
“It is recommended that a national population census be held every 10 years, he said.
