The Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that the digitised 2023 National Population and Housing Census coming up in the first week of the next month across the nation, will enhance security in all sectors and urged all and sundry to put hands on deck for the exercise to record a huge success.
The Minister who is the Chairman of, the National Publicity Committee for the 2023 Census stated this during a stakeholder’s Town Hall meeting held in Kano state North-Western Nigeria.
He said the census is important for planning, infrastructure development, security and enhancement of national progress among others.
He said the digital component of the census exercise will make codified Information available for all sectors to monitor and enhance security in the nation.
“The relationship between census and security is that, it is going to be a digital census because technology will be deployed. Whatever information is generated from this exercise will be codified and collated and they will definitely be shared on different platforms.
“Is it National identification which is very important for the security sector and monitoring, is it banking information which is very important for security checks and fights against illicit financial flow into our economic system? Immigration services, which is also security related so that control can be effected on who comes into our country.
“These are all issues that the 2023 national census is going to address,’ said the minister.
He said the importance and the significance of a national census exercise to Nigeria like other parts of the globe cannot be overemphasised.
He explained that Nigeria’s population may have increased by 30 percent, since the last census was conducted in 2006, about 17 years ago, stressing that beyond that, there was the need to further know the exact number, the gender distribution, different age-grade levels and section of the country’s demography.
According to him, the town hall meeting was held for people to rub minds, dispel fake news and chat ways forward for a successful 2023 national Census.
“The purpose is to create the requisite awareness about the census, to clear grey areas about the census because all of us seated here may not have the technical competencies but those who have the technical knowledge are here to give the necessary answers.
“So that necessary information can be taken to where it belongs to, this is the grassroots, so that disinformation, misinformation about the census will not be allowed to disrupt and take away the shine off this National event,” said the Minister.
The Minister was represented at the event by the Director General National Orientation Agency, Dr. Garba Abari
Observations raised at the meeting include issues around religion, ethnicity, persons with disability, internally displaced persons, insecurity-prone areas, fake news, people in transit, the character of recruited personnel and remuneration among others.
The Director of Public Affairs of the National Population Commission, Isiaka Yahaya while answering questions said the questionnaire for the census does not give room for questions and answers on religion and ethnicity.
“The Census does not actually ask religious questions as being mischievously shared on different social media platforms. It does not also ask ethnicity questions.
“The 2023 census is only targeted at generating information about how many Nigerians are, how many are women and men, how many are young and old, how many are employed and how many are not. These are the information required for national planning,” he said.
On the position of people with disability in the questionnaire, asked by a victim Aminu Ahmed Tudun-Wada, the Director said the questionnaire was designed to capture necessary information about them.
“Information about people with disability will be beneficial because such will make planning about them easily. Questions about them are there in the questionnaire,” he said.
A representative of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev.Tinto Musa asked about the position of hundreds of Nigerians displaced by insurgence, even across the border in the census. Yahaya replied, “Displaced persons will be asked questions about their original location and afterward their data will be taken there. Nobody will lose his or her identity but those in other countries will not be counted because the census is about people resident in a country. However, all foreigners in Nigeria will be counted.”
On the insecurity and hard-to-reach area question raised by Hajia Jemila Hudu of the National Council of Women Society, Yahaya answered that measures have been taken to overcome those challenges
“The enumerators recruited are all local government area indigenes because they know the nooks and crannies. Police and traditional rulers have also been engaged, so there will be no problem.
“In the Hard to reach areas, we will be using bicycles, horses, boats, and other means to reach those areas,” he said
He said the commission while recruiting took a lot of security measures against miscreants, promising that all those employed will be promptly paid except those using Microfinance Banks
“People on transit and homeless will be traced to their temporal areas of abode, even late into the night, including boarding schools and institutions. So everybody will be asked the necessary questions. Nobody will lose his or her identity in the five days exercise
“Call back cards will be dropped for those not at home, later during the exercise visits will be paid for them to be counted,” he added.
The Director General of the National Orientation Agency Dr. Garba Abari in his own capacity called on people to dispel fake news on social media on census matters urging clerics to spread messages against the ugly development.
“What is being spread on the Census questionnaire about religion is fake news, I’m calling on imams, the committee of mosques to spread the message that what is being spread is fake news,” he said.
The National Census Publicity Committee members among others include Director Generals of VON, NTA, NAN, and NOA.
Dominica Nwabufo
