The National Population Commission (NPC) said yesterday that if the population and housing census fails to take place within the next 12 months, information that has been gathered across the country will become stale.
It said that if the exercise is not held within the shortest possible time, it could mean that it will be started anew and the money already spent will be wasted.
The Federal Commissioner representing Ekiti State at the NPC, Ayodeji Ajayi, stated this yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, during a meeting with media executives and other stakeholders on the postponement of the 2023 census.
According to him, because of the huge financial resources, amounting to N200 billion, and because the new government needs the data generated from the census to plan for the country, the best option is to proceed with the exercise.
“The census must be held within the shortest time possible. We have gathered information across the country. If we don’t use them within the next 12 months, they will become stale. We conducted Enumeration Area Demarcation (EAD) three years ago, and by the time we started afresh, we had to go back and redo the EAD because so many people had migrated and so many houses had been built.
“We don’t want to start all over again. However, we cannot shy away from it if the federal government says so. But because of the huge finances that have been committed to this exercise, the best thing for us is to move forward and deliver the census.
“Actually, this government will need the data that we are going to produce for them to plan for this country, whether at the national or sub-national level. So, the best thing is to march forward, hoping that the federal government will make the proclamation.
Once the 2023 census succeeds, the next one will not be cumbersome. The only thing required is to register movements from one state to another. The NPC is working on birth and death registration. So, it will be very easy to remove those who are no longer alive from the register,” he said.
The NPC boss said that the purpose of the meeting was in keeping with the promise to be open and engage critical stakeholders always, adding that the opportunity afforded the NPC to update the newsmen on the status of preparation for the census and the next step forward in light of the postponement.
