Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State has lamented that census in Nigeria has always been politicised.
He expressesd this at a one-day stakeholders’ summit on the proposed 2023 population and housing census in Katsina.
He recalled that since 1963, census in Nigeria has been highly and wrongly politicised, saying, “All our censuses are being bedevilled by politics of numbers not quality of numbers.
“We hope this time, with technology, we will be able to achieve near perfection in terms of knowing how many we are in this country.
“The tragedy of what we have done in reducing the issues of census could rarely fall on it in terms of resources and allocation.
“Political offices have eroded the main objective of knowing how many we are. Therefore, I urge the commission to address the quality of numbers, not politics of numbers.
The governor therefore, called on traditional rulers in the state to give maximum support towards the successful conduct of the 2023 population and housing census.
According to him, it is the responsibility of traditional rulers to ensure that their subjects give the exact number of their family members, without adding to it.
He said that the traditional rulers had a very important role to play towards achieving this and the entire success of the exercise in the state.
Masari explained that it was only by providing the exact number of family members that the accurate population of the state could be realised for planning purposes.
Earlier, the NPC Federal Commissioner in the state, Alhaji Bala Almu-Banye, said the scheduled census exercise was designed to realise the dream of providing the needed demographic data.
The NPC chief said that this would facilitate and place Nigeria on the pedestal of sustainable development.
He said: “In line with the UN principles and recommendations, the 2023 census will be fully digitised and the commission has deployed technology to conduct the exercise and enhance data quality.
“In the 2023 census, everyone will be counted in the right way, at the right place and time and for the benefit of all persons resident in Nigeria.”
He explained that the summit would broaden state level support base for the successful conduct of the exercise as well as create public awareness, including its imperatives, methodology and timelines.
Almu-Banye decorated Gov. Masari as the ambassador of census in the state. (NAN)
