By Longtong Yakubu, KANO
The National Population Commission, NPC, has appealed to Nigerians, especially the enumerators and respondents to cooperate with the commission while it use seven days of the Ramadan period to conduct the 2023 housing and population census, stating that, it is the best time to get it done.
The Kano state Federal Commissioner, Isma’il Lawal Suleiman, made the appeal while responding to questions from journalists during a One day capacity building for Journalists on effective reporting of the 2023 population and housing census in the State.
The Commissioner explained that, the census which has been planned for years in this current administration now is constraint by time, hence the need to get results before handing over to the next government after the elections.
He said, “We have been preparing for the census for years under the current government, we want to make sure we undertake this and produce what we call preliminary results and give this current government before they leave office. We are constrained because there is simply no time from when we would finish this census to when this government will hand over to the incoming government.
“If we delay the census today, we would not be able to produce even the preliminary result and then we wouldn’t know what the incoming government might decide to do. Some of us know that, if you have a good product you can always sell it to whoever.
“So the reason is that, we want to finish this assignment in the life of this government and produce preliminary results and the final results can wait till the new government.
“Remember the conduct of the census is about a week, it is not going to be throughout the period and the last ten days will not be affected because Ramadan will begin around 23rd March and actual eunumeration will be around 29th March, so it’s about a week after commencement and then just one week and the rest of the days will not be affected,” Suleiman noted.
The Commissioner further pointed out that, there are calls by groups and even some Commissioners of the commission to shift the exercise further but hoping to convince them as they are still pushing with preparations for the exercise.
In his remarks, the State Director of the Commission, Ismaila Alhassan Dogo, said the aim of the meeting is to enlighten journalists about the critical activities of the 2023 census as key players in ensuring success of the exercise.
