Delta state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, Thursday, called on Nigeria
citizens to submit themselves for enumeration during the forthcoming Census, saying accurate census data is needed now to tackle the security challenges bedeviling the country.
Governor Okowa, who stated this in Asaba during the stakeholders summit on the 2023 Population and Housing Census said that census also give an overview of the population, where they are and who they are which to a large extent lay a solid foundation for evidence-based and reliable demographic data for national planning and development.
The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State government (SSG), Mr. Patrick Ukah revealed that the summit was meant to strengthen collaboration and solicit the cooperation and support of key stakeholders for the successful conduct of the 2023 Census
He said population data is critical to development planning and any government desirous of achieving socio-economic development needs to know how many people require basic amenities such as light, water, schools, housing, health facilities, and education.
According to him, “No country relies solely on its estimated population, because such estimates ignore the demographics unearthed by census data, which are needed for national planning purposes.”
While regretting that the Nation’s population and housing census was conducted in March 2006, Okowa who is the PDP vice presidential candidate stated since then, the population size, composition and characteristics canvassed during the 2006 Census have undergone considerable change over the last sixteen years.
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 have been rendered less useful for development planning.
“It has become imperative for the nation to conduct another national census to produce a new set of demographic and social-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, since the people are both the agents and beneficiaries of development activities”,
“To the best of my knowledge the national population in terms of size, distribution and socio-economic characteristics is required for planning purposes hence the conduct of the census is an essential to government”.
Okowa further said with the 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 occasioned by the rapidly growing nature of the population and large proportion
