… As Govt. restates Commitment to Successful 2023 Census exercise.
By Muhammad Ohunene Simbiyat
Kogi state government has assured management of National Population Commission of its readiness to provide necessary assistance that will ensure a hitch free population and housing census exercise.
The Deputy Governor, Edward Onoja, who is the Chairman of Census Publicity Committee in Kogi State, gave the assurances at a one day Capacity building workshop held on Wednesday in Lokoja,
The Deputy Governor noted that the importance of National Census to Nation’s development cannot be overstated as the state government in synergy with the commission that make the exercise successful.
The Deputy Governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for information and communication, Kingsley Fanwo, said , there are lots of misinformation and misgivings held by the people against the exercise assuring that the quality of members of the publicity committee, the narrative would soon be a thing of the past.
He decried the irregular conduct of the Census exercise in Nigeria, which ought to be ten year interval has affected effective National planning that will promote sustainable Development.
He added that with the human and material resources being committed into this exercise, he is confident of the success of the project,
He called on the members of publicity committee to redouble their efforts in order to achieve set goals and targets of arousing the interest of the people to the project.
Fanwo urged women who are the home keepers and who have strong influence in their homes to convey positive information to their families, even as he called on traditional and religious leaders to disseminate the information about the exercise to their members and subjects.
In a remark, the Federal Commissioner of NPC in Kogi state, Prof. Jimoh Habitat Isah , charged members to douse the promotion of fake news , misinformation and age long belief about the census, stressing that it was on the narrative that the commission decided to constitute the publicity committee.
Prof. Isah said after the set up of the National body, Kogi state launched her own in march this year, which will soon be followed with the Local Government Council publicity committee.
He said the essence is to buy -in the confidence of the people thereby changing their held on beliefs.
According to him, We want the society to function properly and to correct misconceptions, misgivings and misrepresentation of facts that members of the committee were carefully chosen to drive the advocacy for a successful conduct of the census.
” You are expected to be armed with relevant know- how to handle the activities leading to the exercise, and I’m aware that you have the basic knowledge and concepts which is key to the census.
“Even though there’ are challenges in relationship to set targets, but I’m confident that with your wealth of experience you will serve as instruments for the execution of this project ” he said.
The publicity committee members who were drawn from the media, traditional and religious bodies, Market group, students body, were exposed to topics on Enumeration Area Demarcation for 2023 population and housing census, Technology innovation in the 2023 Census and Processes and methodology for 2023 census.