Governors will back NPC for successful 2022 census – Fayemi

Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Dr Kayode Fayemi, has said governors will support the conduct of the 2022 National Population Census, describing the exercise as vital to the socio-economic index of the country.

 He stated this when the Chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Alhaji Nasir Isa Kwarra, led South West federal commissioners and some principal officers in the commission on an advocacy visit to him in Ado Ekiti. 

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The governor maintained that the exercise was of utmost priority to the governors and would be given the needed assistance to ensure that the process was conducted scientifically to avoid manipulation and human error.

He assured the commission of the support of his colleagues in the area of sensitisation, mobilisation, and provision of security, accommodation and logistics for effective deployment of personnel across the state.

“We brandish figures around too much in this country; nothing concrete.

“Even countries that are bigger than us, that are more complex than us do hold their population census routinely, so there is no reason we should not be able to do this as a matter of course in Nigeria and I know that the president would be very supportive of this assignment as we all will be at our own level; at the subnational level.

“Whatever you think we have to do to accomplish this task, we are here, we will do it,” he added.

Earlier, the NPC chairman said the commission had started the second pretest across selected local governments in the country of which three local governments: Efon, Ekiti West and Ilejemeje were selected in the state to increase public awareness and get the mind of the people prepared for the forthcoming census exercise.

 Kwarra revealed that the 2022 census would be conducted with the aid of electronic devices to reduce human errors and chances of manipulation and that census instruments and methodology were being deployed in the second pre-test exercise to prove their viability and give room for improvement.