Nigerians not encouraged to move around during census —NPC

The chairman of the Public Affairs Committee of the National Population Commission (NPC), Eyitayo Oyetunji, has urged Nigerians not to leave their residential areas during the population census.

Seventeen years after the last national census in 2006, Nigeria is set to conduct a green census across the country May this year.

Speaking during a Channels TV interview, Sunrise Daily on Monday, Oyetunji said the need for accurate information was key to effective planning, saying movement of people during the process will affect the collation.

He added that the exercise would be transparent in order to counter misconceptions and deepen the development by the government for Nigerians.

“We don’t encourage anyone to move anywhere, the census essentially is to collect information for planning purposes and to provide amenities infrastructure you have to have accurate information of the people in an area.

Read also:Nigerian govt fixes May 3 for 2023 national census

“A census is not a census except everyone is counted and that is our cardinal objective, to ensure that everyone is counted once and in the right place, a census must have universality for it to be a census, every part of the country must be covered and that is our intention.

“The census is not how many we are, the census primary is to give the basis that will help any administration to provide a better quality of life for the people and to do that, a government requires information, not just about how many persons they are, what are their needs, what is their present status.

“A new administration requires data to plan, to succeed, to start. You need a blueprint of what people ought to administer, where they are, how many they are, and what they require. Ideally, that is what we should start with.

“It is counterproductive to leave your place and go to your village, it won’t help because the appropriate development planning that should be made for you where you are would not then be made.”

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