The National Population Commission (NPC) has said that the 2023 population and housing census was only postponed and not cancelled.
The NPC national commissioner representing Delta State, Sir Richard Odibo, stated this in Asaba, the state capital while discussing issues relating to the 2023 census.
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He said materials procured in preparation for the postponed census are secure at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) offices nationwide, pending the announcement of a new date for the exercise.
The national commissioner noted that 70 per cent of preparation for the census had been achieved before the postponement, while materials and devises to execute the process are in custody of the CBN.
“The information is aimed at sending a message to the populace. The census has not been cancelled. What we have been doing since 2013 is not wasted. Items that we have procured towards the census they are all safeguarded.”
The state director of NPC, Mr Patrick Lotobi, explained the level of preparedness by the commission at the state and local level, stressing the readiness of personnel for the census if a new date of commencement was announced.
The secretary of the state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, (NUJ), Comrade Patrick Ochei, who decried delays in the conduct of the national census, urged the government to give the population commission the necessary support to produce a national database that would aid planning.
“We know that the data they generate is used for national planning and development, so there is every need to urgently carry out this census,” he said.