By Michael Egbejule, Benin City.
The National Population Commission (NPC), yesterday, urged Nigerians to make themselves available for counting during the conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
It also appealed to the media to help educate and enlighten Nigerians on new ways of census taking ahead of the conduct of the exercise. The Federal Commissioner, NPC in Edo State, Dr. Tony Aiyejina made the call in Benin City, Edo State, during a one day capacity building workshop for journalists on effective reporting of the 2023 population and housing census.
Aiyejina said the call became necessary following the role the media plays in information dissemination.
“Nigerians need to be educated and enlightened on this new way of census taking. That is why the media as the fourth estate of the realm will play a critical and pivotal role in this census project.
“This is the main reason for holding this capacity building workshop for journalists. It will avail them the opportunity to understand basic concepts and methodology in census taking that will eventually result in effective reportage of the census,” he said.
Aiyejina noted that the census exercise is a people-oriented statistical exercise that is conducted to generate data for national planning and development. He lamented that the country has a checkered history of census taking since the first census conducted in 1866 to the last one that took place in 2006. According to him, past censuses were fraught with controversies due to a myriad of factors.
Source: The Guardian
