Aminat Yahaya —
Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari yesterday at a one-day stakeholders’ summit for next year’s 2023 National Population and Housing Census in the state capital, Katsina, appealed to traditional rulers to give maximum support towards the successful conduct of the census.
He said it is the responsibility of traditional rulers to ensure that their subjects give the exact number of family members, without adding to it.
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While making the traditional rulers understand that they have ‘a very important role’ to play towards achieving this and the entire success of the exercise in the state, Masari explained that it was only by providing the exact number of family members that the accurate population of the state could be realized for planning purposes.
He pointed out that since 1963, census in Nigeria has been highly and wrongly politicised.
“All our censuses are being bedeviled by politics of numbers not quality of numbers, he said.
“We hope this time, with technology, we will be able to achieve near perfection in terms of knowing how many we are in this country. The tragedy of what we have done in reducing the issues of census could rarely fall on it in terms of resources and allocation.
“Political offices have eroded the main objective of knowing how many we are. Therefore, I urge the commission to address the quality of numbers, not politics of numbers”.
The state Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission (NPC), Bala Almu Banye gave assurances of the commission’s commitment to a credible census.
“In line with the United Nations principles and recommendations, the 2023 census will be fully digital and the Commission has deployed technology to conduct the exercise and enhance data quality, Banye said.
“I wish to assure Nigerians and our development partners that the commission remains committed to the conduct of a credible and acceptable census that will be transformational and meet international standards.
“In the 2023 census, everyone will be counted in the right way, at the right place and time and for the benefit of all persons resident in Nigeria”.
