2023 Census Will Be Nigeria’s Best Ever — NPC

The National Population Commission (NPC) has as­sured that the 2023 Nation­al Population and Housing Census will be the best ever conducted in the history of the country.

NPC’s Federal Commis­sioner in Gombe State, Mr. Abubakar Danburam, stated this in Gombe on Tuesday during the inau­guration of a 16-member Advocacy and Logistics Committee for the 2023 Population and Housing Census in the state.

Danburam said with the efforts so far made by the commission as well as the digitalisation of the exer­cise, the 2023 census would be better than anyone con­ducted in the nation’s his­tory of conducting census.

He said with the commis­sion leveraging technology and modern approach to conducting census, there was no doubt that the 2023 exercise would be an improvement on the ones conducted in the past by the commission.

He said the priority of NPC in conducting accu­rate, reliable and accept­able census was as a re­sult of the importance of census for development planning and other inter­ventions that would help improve citizens’ wellbe­ing.

According to him, the 2023 census will address the irregularities associat­ed with previous exercises.

“I can remember very well the 1963 census, there were lots of irregularities due to lack of development. The 1973 census, there was little improvement com­pared to that of 1963.

“Subsequent censuses came up with a lot of im­provements. The current census to be conducted, from the level of demarca­tion, is digital.

“It is so because we are now matured enough to use the satellite image. The satellite image was used for the demarcation and the demarcation is called the Enumeration Area De­marcation (EAD),” he said.

He explained that the EAD was the foundation of the current census: “This demarcation was done meticulously and neatly. Every part of this country has been demarcated, no leftover, no overlap.

“This is giving us all the assurance that the census to be conducted will be dig­ital and hopefully the best census conducted so far in this country.”

While inaugurating the 16-man committee, Manas­sah Jatau, the Deputy Gov­ernor of Gombe State, who doubles as the chairman of the committee, said the 2023 census would provide vital information about the socio-economic variables of the nation’s population.

Jatau advised the com­mission to take proactive measures to curb the threat of manipulation during the exercise as the NPC was working to conduct a cred­ible census that would meet best global practice.

“The digital census is most likely to eliminate pre­vious bottlenecks such as political, religious and cul­tural sentiments associated with accurate census in the country over the years.

“However, we should note that it is human be­ings that control and some­times manipulate these ma­chines that were meant for ease of carrying out tasks, jobs more accurately, with great precision,” he said.

To his committee mem­bers, the chairman said their duty was to enlight­en, sensitise and get the support of residents of Gombe State towards the successful conduct of the exercise in May.