Nasir Isa Kwarra, Executive Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), has assured that the conduct of the 2023 Population and Housing Census would be insulated from politics.
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Kwarra gave the assurance on Monday when he led a team of NPC Federal Commissioners on an advocacy visit to the residence of Chief Edwin Clark in Asokoro, Abuja.
He said the process and outcome of the forthcoming census would be devoid of politics, noting that the exercise would be acceptable to all Nigerians
He said the Commission took a deliberate decision to ensure that political parties finished their primaries before the conduct of the trial census in July 2022, adding that the main census would be conducted after the 2023 general elections.
The NPC boss explained that the Commission would deploy hi-tech technology in the conduct of the census, adding that already, the Commission had concluded the conduct of trial census in some selected Local Government Areas across the country.
Kwarra, who went down memory lane to recall what the Commission had done so far in its preparations to conduct a census, expressed optimism and dogged determination to conduct a reliable, acceptable and credible census next year.
He said: “We have captured all the entire houses in Nigeria. We have given them the desired code. We have these codes in digital form in 774 LGAs. You know sir, there have been security challenges.
“So, a few LGAs have not been done in some pockets of places. Now, the insecurity has been subsidised and we are going into the two LGAs that are remaining, we are going to demarcate them.
“We are partnering with Nigerian Postal Service to be able to develop a modern digital code that is based on buildings and not on an area.”
Responding, Chief Edwin Clark, a Nigerian nationalist, Ijaw leader and politician, commended the NPC for the initiatives, the Commission has taken so far in the preparation for the 2023 Population and Housing Census.
Clark lamented that the previous censuses’ conduct in Nigeria had been tainted and enmeshed with politics, religion and tribe.
He said that as a result of controversies that had trailed the conduct of past censuses, many Nigerians had been fed with the census.
He wondered how Nigeria has continued to get increase in population without conducting a reliable and credible census.
The Ijaw leader however pledged to support NPC in its advocacy and sensitisation of Nigerians, adding that all hands must be on deck in order to get it right during the forthcoming census.
He further tasked the Chairman of the NPC and the management staff to be courageous to do the right thing during the census.
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