NPC to conduct census soon, says commission

Federal Commissioner, National Population Commission (NPC), Delta State, Chief Richard Odibo, has declared that the 2023 Census and Housing Enumeration exercise will soon be conducted in Nigeria.

Odibo hinted that this is sequel to moves by the Commission to engage the presidency soon, to see the need to carry out the exercise without unnecessary delay.

Recall that former President Muhammadu Buhari postponed the census and housing enumeration few days to commencement of the exercise to allow the incumbent President, Bola Tinubu, have some input.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting with media executives in his office in Asaba, yesterday, Odibo said: “We are very confident that the census will hold very soon, because Tinubu needs adequate data of Nigerians to work with, as he runs affairs of the nation.”

While giving update on preparations for the exercise, he said the President will be interested to have accurate data, noting that the Commission would not want to work with projections anymore, but figures that are real and accurate.

He said this is why the Commission would not delay to conduct the exercise since it had sufficiently prepared for it, stressing that enormous human and material resources have already been expended in implementation of preparatory activities.

The NPC commissioner further noted that everything needed to conduct the exercise are already in place.

“The Commission is focusing on ensuring that all resources expended so far are safeguard, and that the nation does not need to start all over when the current administration approves a date for the exercise,” Odibo said.

According to him, the Commission had recruited, about one million workers for the assignment, and acquired Personal Digital Assistant devices with about 500,000 of them delivered across the states and configured, indicating how well NPC had prepared for the exercise.

He noted that the Commission had made necessary arrangements for storage and security of equipment to prevent damage and theft.