President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said the deployment
of digital technology in the 2023 National Population and Housing Census would
ensure effectiveness and more accuracy in the figures.
Buhari said Nigeria could rank third largest globally by
2050, after China and India with such a technology.
He spoke at the national stakeholders’ summit on the 2023
Population and Housing Census held at the State House.
Femi Adesina, the President’s spokesman disclosed this in a
statement he signed.
Buhari said a “reliable, credible, acceptable and successful
census” will help the government in planning for development, especially in
bolstering the social security programme that targets more vulnerable
Nigerians.
He said: “The country’s inability to conduct a population
census in the last 16 years has created an information vacuum as the data from
the last census conducted in 2006 has been rendered out of date for planning
purposes. It has therefore become imperative for the nation to conduct another
national census to produce a new set of demographic and socio-economic data
that will provide the basis for national planning and sustainable development.
“Population is a critical factor in a nation’s efforts
toward achieving sustainable development. People are both the agents and
beneficiaries of the development process. Knowledge of the national population
in terms of size, distribution and socio-economic characteristics is required
for planning purposes. This, therefore, makes the conduct of the census an
essential governance activity.
“With a projected population of 216,783,381, Nigeria is the
sixth most populous country in the world and the most populous country on the
African continent. Due to the rapidly growing nature of the population and
large proportion of the youthful population, Nigeria is also projected to be
the third most populous country in the World by the year 2050 after India and
China,” he said.
Despite Nigeria’s high-ranking position on the global demographic
map, the President said its population censuses had been conducted irregularly
and at intervals, longer than the United Nations recommended 10 years.
“This irregular and long interval of census taking in
Nigeria has denied the nation the huge benefits of comprehensive baseline data
for evidence-based decision-making.
“The nation requires a new data set to drive the
implementation of the recently launched revised National Policy on Population
for Sustainable Development and other government policies. The 2023 Census data
is also needed to tackle the security challenges bedevilling the country as it
will give an overview of the population, where we are and who we are.
“Ordinarily, conducting a population census is a routine
national event that is the ultimate responsibility of every national
government. Census taking cannot be left to the National Population Commission
alone.
“Our Administration is convinced that the National
Population Commission has the commitment and capacity to deliver to the nation
a reliable, credible, acceptable and successful census. We are also satisfied
with the deployment of technology by the Commission to ensure the conduct of
the first fully digital census in Nigeria as the census methodology will
enhance the data quality, inspire the confidence of the Nigerian people and
acceptability of the census results.”
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You, Mr President, have repopulated Nigeria with terrorists from Niger republic, Mali etc. How can the census be accurate.
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