|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By our reporter
Nasarawa State Governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule has directed members of the newly inaugurated State and Local Government 2023 National Population and Housing Census Committee, to immediately commence work, as the state makes effort to correct its 2006 attributed population of over 1.8m people.
Engineer Sule handed down the directive shortly after inaugurating the committee, at the Government House, on Friday.
This, according to the Governor, is in line with the initiative of the Federal Government, aimed at mobilizing the grassroots towards a successful national population and housing census come May, 2023.
Engineer Sule equally used the opportunity to appeal to the over 12, 000 enumerators that will be recruited from the state by the National Population Commission (NPC), to man the 12, 000 Enumeration Area Demarcations in Nasarawa State, to work conscientiously towards ensuring that the state arrives at its appropriate population figure for effective planning for development.
The Governor instructed the committee to commence work immediately and to evolve a template that will guide government towards collaborating with the NPC for a successful census.
“It will be recalled that the population census conducted in 2006 puts the population of Nasarawa State at 1.86m. Dissatisfied with this population figure, the Nasarawa State government filed a case with the census tribunal for necessary redress.
“The government and people of Nasarawa State were convinced that the state was grossly under counted, considering our large population which informs among other things, by our strategic location as the gateway to the FCT.
“Furthermore, the UNFPA survey admits this fact when it indicated in its previous report that Karu and Mararaba area, within the boundary of the FCT alone, have the highest population growth in the world of 40 percent. I need to state that, even by the official demographic projection, which made before the 2006 exercise, Nasarawa State population has been estimated at atleast 3.1m people as at now,” he stated.
The Governor lamented that, with the last population census held 16 years ago, the situation has created information vacuum and data collected has become irrelevant for planning purposes.
“It’s against this background that it has become imperative for the FG to conduct another national census in order to produce a new set of demographic and social economic data to provide the right basis for national planning and sustainable development.
“There is no gainsaying that population is one of the critical factors in achieving the nation’s sustainable planning and economic development. It’s for this reason that government is desirous to having accurate record of its citizens for future national planning.
“This determination I believe informed the decision of the national council of state to recommend for the conduct of the census exercise in 2023, which was approved by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari,” he said.
While congratulating the President for his commitment to laying a solid foundation for evidence-based and relevant data to enhance national planning and development, Engineer Sule said inaugurating the state and local government 2023 national population census publicity committee, is in line with the commitment of his administration to cascade the benefits to the grassroots.
The committee is to be guided by the following terms of reference, to ensure grassroots dissemination of the 2023 census messages and its acceptance, mobilize additional resources to supplement NPC budgetary provisions, promote local government ownership and acceptability of the 2023 population and housing census among stakeholders, especially at the grassroots, as well as serve as a platform for receiving feedback, suggestions of the people on the census process and methodologies.
“I want to call on the good people of Nasarawa State that are lucky to be engaged in this exercise to take the interest of the state at heart. Because of all the efforts we are putting into this, and the whole exercise we are trying to put in, is to come up with the accurate figure of the population of the state so that we can plan properly.
“I have no doubt that this 1.8m figure that was allocated to Nasarawa State, in deed today, we have close to 5m people in Nasarawa State. And until we are able to come together and work by these enumerators, we will not be able to be successful in carrying out this exercise. So I use this opportunity to call on you that will be appointed to do the best that you can to ensure that Nasarawa State gets its proper place in the comity of states,” the Governor stated.
