The National Population Commission, on Thursday said the the population and housing census billed for next year, will hold in April despite the coming 2023 general elections.
The NPC Chairman, Nasir Isa-Kwarra disclosed this known at a three-day national capacity building workshop on 2023 population and housing census for state directors and management staff of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, organised by the National Population Commission in collaboration with NOA, in Abuja.
This was even as he encouraged Nigerians to actively participate in the 2023 general elections and elect leaders who would take the country to the “promised land.”
He said, “2023 is a very important year for Nigeria, we are conducting elections so that we don’t have leadership vacuum and have people elected. I want to encourage Nigerians to participate in this, because it is very important we have great leaders that will lead us to our promised land.
“At the same time, for these leaders to work very well and deliver to Nigerians the aspirations of our development for this country, we need to provide accurate, verifiable and acceptable data that they can use for planning and policy making to ensure we have our development aspirations achieved.
“It is possible to have elections and census conducted in 2023 and I assure Nigerians that we will do it and conduct it successfully.”
In the same vein, the Director-General National Orientation Agency, Dr. Garba Abari, urged Nigerians to show themselves to be counted during the census.
He said, “Every Nigerian must submit himself or herself to be counted. We need accurate data for purposes of planning, inclusivity and early warning signals. Census is an important national event of which every citizen should count and stand to be counted.
“This is because the outcome of the coming census will impact greatly on ourselves and even the next generations to come.”