The National Population Commission,NPC, has appealed to Ndi Anambra to join the commission in its bid to give Nigeria a reliable demographic data through the forthcoming 2023 Census.
The Federal Commissioner, Anambra State, Mr Chidi Ezeoke, made the appeal during a two day workshop on Compendium of Locality on 2023 Population Housing Census, organized by the commission in collaboration with Anambra State Government held in Awka.
The event attracted presidents general from communities in Anambra State, political appointees among others.
The Compendium of Localities in census taking is a tool for census data dissemination as well as for national planning and development.
Mr Ezeoke explained that the Compendium of Localities that will be presented to the president before the 2023 Population and Housing Census is intended to be an aggregation of the consensus of stakeholders across the federation and will be placed in the Gazette of places and names for the country.
He assured that this will be purposely relevant in the drive towards sustainable national development, noting that the commission is committed to ensuring that everything about the census is done rightly and professionally.
In his remarks, Secretary to the State Government, Professor Solo Chukwulobelu represented by Mrs Onyinyechi Edokwe, called on NPC while carrying out the census exercise to pay special attention to peculiarities in Anambra State to ensure that the state is properly counted.
He also charged the participants to take the message of the workshop down to the grassroots to ensure their people participate fully in the forthcoming national census.
In his address, the Director, NPC, Anambra State, Dr Joachin Ulasi, said the state level workshop is very important and aimed at acquainting and familiarizing the stakeholders with good knowledge of localities and settlement pattern.
He appreciated Governor Chukwuma Soludo for his support to the commission and local government chairmen and presidents general for their support during the Enumeration Area Demarcation.
In his goodwill message, the Anambra State director, National Orientation Agency, Barrister Charles Nwoji, noted that NOA intend to change the narrative by using their available platforms and robust structure to create widespread awareness to motivate persons, families and groups to get counte and called on all and sundry to take this as a challenge and bring the census exercise to fruition.
Also speaking, the representative of Independent National Electoral Commission,bMr Kingsley Anoforo, pointed out the collaboration between INEC and NPC to achieve national developmental goals and as well informed Ndi Anambra that INEC is recruiting adhoc staff for the next election and encourage them to apply.
The national president, Anambra State Association of Town Unions, Barrister Titus Akpudo thanked God for the sensitization about the census which started early in Anambra State and told the presidents general to do the needful saying that to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Digital display of locality maps for the state, presentation of the state’s locality lists, and interaction with stakeholders featured during the event.
