Naomi Gabriel —
The Chairman of the National Population Commission, NPC, Nasir Isa-Kwarra yesterday said the compendium of locality in census taking is a tool for data dissemination, as well as for national planning and development.
He stated this at the national compendium of localities workshop organised by the NPC in collaboration with other national stakeholders, in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
“The objective of this National Compendium of localities Workshop is to compile all the localities demarcated during the EAD on Local Government Area basis showing the coverage and location on interactive maps, Kwarra said.
“This compilation will be presented to the Local Government Area stakeholders in the States at another workshop. The soft copy of the locality list will also be given to the Local Government Chairmen.
“The 2023 population and housing census results will be released up to the lowest level of the census entities which could be as small as a camp.
“The Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) exercise collected data on all localities with a standard definition of locality as a distinct population cluster (also designated as inhabited place, populated centre, settlement and so forth) in which the inhabitants live in neighbouring sets of living quarters, has a name or a locally recognized status.
“It also includes fishing camps, hamlets, mining camps, ranches, farms, market towns, villages, towns, cities and many other population clusters that meet the criteria specified above. Wards, quarters or housing estates within a town or city were not regarded as a locality.
“Fragmentation of Localities may hinder the rapid development of an LGA as major developmental intervention programmes by Government/NGO work along the path of population. It should be noted however that more Localities do not translate to the higher population for the LGA.
“The Compendium of locality which will be presented to the President before the 2023 population and housing census will be approved with the consensus of stakeholders as the Gazetteer of Place Names for the Country.”
Kwarra assured Nigerians that the Commission was irrevocably committed to positively rewriting the history of censuses in Nigeria and delivering accurate, reliable and acceptable censuses that would be purposefully relevant in the drive towards sustainable national development.
