CSO Makes Case For Planned Digital Census

Citing the benefits of a digitalised census, a civil society organisation (CSO), Save Nigeria Movement (SNM) has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to go ahead with the planned conduct of the headcount this year.

It said the successful conclusion of the exercise will ensure sound economic planning and provision of infrastructure.

It applauded the president for resolving to conduct a digitalised census for the country.

At an interactive session with social media influencers in Abuja yesterday, the group’s convener, Rev. Solomon Semaka, declared that the outcome of the census would facilitate the actualisation of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He contended that a digital census with all its biometric features will clear all forms of suspicions and distrust as nobody will be counted twice and no imaginary entries will be made.

Semaka said the conduct of a digital census would provide Nigeria with accurate information about its true numbers, population structure, age distribution and the other indices that are crucial for development.

The group added that with the modalities in place, no tribe or state can manipulate their numbers at the expense of others.

“The exact population of Nigerians will be known including other very important statistics within a very short period of time. Participation in this exercise should therefore, be a priority since everybody will be counted as a civic duty,” Semaka said.

“This will enable the government to focus on priority needs like health care, education, social amenities, social security and employment generation to mention but a few. In fact, there‘s no aspect of our national life that will not benefit from this all-important exercise, including you, our esteemed social media influencers,” he added.

The group expressed satisfaction with the measures put in place by the management team of NPC under Alhaji Isa Kwarra aimed at ensuring the conduct of a hitch free census in the country.

It added, „Successive administrations in NPC have made concerted efforts to plan, strategize and coordinate this project and must be commended. It is worth noting that the commission has succeeded in creating a digitalized Enumeration Area Demarcation maps using the most advanced Geographic Information System soft wares and satellite imagery. „This in itself is a huge achievement but more than that, the Commission has successfully deployed Portable Digital Assistants (PDA) with state-of-the-art soft wares and hardware to ensure seamless data capture and onward transmission to dedicated servers.

“The least we can do as social media influencers and civil society organisations is to cooperate with the process and play our part by our positive advocacy.

“Similarly, the commission has already conducted mock and trial census exercises across some selected local governments and states across the country. This is in addition to the training of millions of Nigerians to serve as ad-hoc staff in various capacities across the country,” Semaka said.