NPC Urges Nigerians To Support 2023 Census

National Population Commission (NPC) has appealed to Nigerians to support the proposed 2023 population and housing census for the benefit of all.

The federal commissioner, representing Oyo State and chairman, public affairs committee of the commission, Hon Eyitayo Oyetunji, made the appeal in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP in Abuja yesterday.

Oyetunji said since President Muhammad Buhari has stated publicly that Nigeria requires census figure to move forward, the era of scepticism should be put behind, adding that nobody should be on the fence anymore.

He stated that the just concluded trial census, which was conducted in six selected local government areas of the country, was very successful, because it has given the commission an insight into what should be expected during the main census.

The federal commissioner explained that the six area councils were selected for the trial census, because those are places that have difficult terrain, border challenges and high levels of migration, adding that the selection was deliberate so that the commission could see the problems that would throw up during the main census.

He pointed out that the main challenges experienced during the trial census included logistics, e-recruitment system and payment system.

According to him, “Some of the challenges we experienced during the trial census include the issue of the e-recruitment system. You know that we have many young Nigerians who wanted to come on board outside the places they actually reside.”