The National Population Commission, (NPC) has asserted that the 2023 Population and Housing Census will check inflation of population that could destroy the credibility of the exercise.
This was disclosed by Navy Capt. Charles Ogwa (rtd), NPC, Federal Commissioner for Cross River during a capacity building workshop for the recently inaugurated publicity committee on Thursday in Calabar.
It would be recalled that Nigeria has had several censuses beginning with the first held in 1866 only in the colony of Lagos and subsequently every 10 years.
However, most of the post-independence censuses held in Nigeria were greeted with pockets of protests and litigations including the last held in 2006 that put the country’s population at 140,003,542 comprising of 71.7 million males and 68.2 million females
Ogwa said the vision of the commission was to conduct a credible census and generate extensive data that could be used by every sector of the society for proper planning.
“To achieve this vision, we have inaugurated the publicity committee to help us reach all classes of people about the importance of the exercise.
“This capacity building exercise is important for members of the publicity committee to equip them to respond to basic questions from members of the public which will encourage them to participate in the process effectively,” he said.
On his part, Gov. Ben Ayade represented by Mr Eric Anderson, Commissioner for Information in Cross River said the exercise was not new to the state and would be done well.
Commending the Federal Government for the initiative after 17 years, he said the state would partner with NPC in ensuring that the exercise was successful in Cross River.
“We are here as a government to partner with NPC, anything required of the state, if we are aware of it and can afford it, we will do.
“I want to plead with everyone here especially the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that we do not lose Sunday, April 16 in informing our people about this exercise,” he said.
The Publicity committee were taken on topics like Process and Methodology for the Conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
Others include; How to Generate Media Contents on the 2023 Population and Housing Census, Technological Innovations in the 2023 Population and Housing Census among others.
