Exercise to validate or re-establish true population figures, says Ekiti gov
National Population Commission (NPC) has postponed indefinitely training for enumerators and supervisors earlier scheduled for today.The Chairman, Dr. Ipalibo Harry, who made the disclosure, yesterday, while addressing journalists, said a new date would be communicated at the earliest possible time.
He pledged that the development would not affect conduct of the population and housing census billed for third to seventh of next month. Harry said his organisation had concluded training of data managers and was ready for the census.
Nigeria is holding the exercise after 17 years. It held in 2006 and the next was to hold in 2016, but never did. The country’s estimated population is put at over 200 million, and the United Nations expects the figure to double by 2050. That would make Nigeria world’s third most populous nation, overtaking the United States.
The census, earlier scheduled for March 29, but postponed for the gubernatorial and legislative elections, will, according to NPC, be conducted digitally in line with United Nations recommendations.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC), recently, approved N2.8 billion for NPC to procure software for the exercise. This is even as the commission has banned social events such as ‘Owambe’ parties during the census.
Federal Commissioner of NPC representing Ekiti State, Ayodeji Ajayi, issued the embargo, yesterday, in Ado-Ekiti, at the inauguration of the state’s Publicity and Advocacy Committee. He said the ban is to prevent people from migrating from their abodes to another, which could affect outcome of the exercise.
WHILE inaugurating the committee, Governor Abiodun Oyebanji said the upcoming census would validate or re-establish “our true population figures of the state”, which he said, was projected to be 2,398,957 (M-1,215,487; F-1,183,470), based on the 2006 exercise, while the state puts its population at 4,166,374, (M-2,110,991; F-2,055,383) for 2023.
He charged the people to take the exercise seriously, as according to him, it would aid planning, policy-making, as well as delivery and execution of programmes.
His words: “This year’s exercise is coming at a time when the state is implementing ‘Agenda 2063 – The Africa We Want’ and Ekiti State Development Plan (2021-2050). A key element of the agenda and plan is our population – its size, distribution, composition and growth rate. We must therefore take.”
