A director of the National Population Commission (NPC) director, Dr Inuwa Jalingo, has disclosed the reason behind the Federal Government of Nigeria’s (FGN) decision to postpone the 2023 national population and housing census.
Jalingo who is the 2023 census manager at a press conference in Abuja said that the postponement was due to the FG’s transition programme and the post-election mood in the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, April 29 postponed the census exercise earlier scheduled for May 3 to May 7 indefinitely.
Jalingo who asserted the preparedness of the commission for the census said the NPC had prepared the ground for the first-ever digital census in Nigeria.
He stated that the commission had achieved the topmost success in all ramifications in terms of preparation.
“We achieved the international standard for digital census. About 450,000 digital gadgets were procured and distributed to all the local governments,” Jalingo said.
Jalingo, however, said the government was a continuous process, expressing hope that the incoming administration would build on the successes recorded for the eventual conduct of the census.
He further reiterated the benefits of the census which were not unconnected with national economic planning and the provision of data for administrative planning.
Jalingo stressed that the commission was able to mobilise Nigerians for the 2023 census with every information required for a successful census.
Meanwhile, minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, while disclosing that Buhari had postponed the census said the pesident gave the approval after meeting with some members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and the Chairman of the National Population Commission and his team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday.
Mohammed said the meeting reiterated the critical need for the conduct of a Population and Housing Census, 17 years after the last census, to collect up-to-date data that would drive the developmental goals of the country and improve the living standards of the Nigerian people.
He said Buhari noted that with the completion of the Enumeration Area Demarcation of the country, conduct of first and second pretests, the recruitment and training of ad hoc workers, procurement of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure, appreciable progress has been made in the implementation of the census.
Mohammed noted that the president also commended the methodology being put in place by the commission to conduct accurate and reliable census, especially the massive deployment of technology that is capable of delivering world- class census and laying a sustainable basis for future censuses.
