As part of strategies to create awareness among the people of Gombe State for the forthcoming 2023 population and housing census, the National Population Commission (NPC) has inaugurated a publicity committee.
In an address during the inauguration of the committee, the state director of NPC, Jude Maigari explained that the committee comprises of stakeholders including the state commissioner of information as chairman, the chairman Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) as member, the representatives of state assembly committee on information, National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Jama’atul Nasril Islam (JNI) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) among others.
He tasked the committee with the responsibility of educating, informing and sensitising the people of Gombe State on the processes and methodology for the conduct of the 2023 population and housing census.
He added that before the inauguration of the committee, the commission had conducted capacity building workshops at the state level for agencies responsible for dissemination of information such as NOA and journalists.
Also, the federal commissioner of the commission in charge of Gombe State, Abubakar Mohammed Danburam said the overreaching vision of the 2023 census is to produce not only accurate, reliable and acceptable census data but also an inclusive data that will be used by all segments of the society for development planning and critical programme interventions.
“Therefore, as part of this commitment, the commission will deploy full digital technology in the conduct of the census and it will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the results of the census is acceptable to Nigerians and the quality of the data to be generated meets international best standards.
“This aspiration has informed the methodology and quality of preparations for the census in the last few years. In all these, the need for advocacy, publicity and public enlightenment cannot be overemphasised,” he said.
