Okezie Ikpeazu, governor of Abia State, has described the collation of reliable data on population as a pivot for effective planning for national development.
Governor Ikpeazu who stated this at Umuobiakwa, his country home, when he received a delegation of the National Population Commission led by Johny Nwabuisi, the federal commissioner representing Abia State at the commission, made it clear that periodic census was critical to national development because governments at all levels need to know the exact number of people whom they are serving and how best to apportion resources.
He disclosed that the realisation of the importance of population census management led his administration to set up a Population Committee for the state for the purpose of liaising with the federal government to ensure that the next population census would be seamless in the state.
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He assured the federal commissioner that his administration would work closely with the commission to ensure that the next census scheduled to hold by next year is successful.
Speaking earlier, Nwabuisi told the governor that they were in Obingwa as part of their plan to organise a trial census, which would be used to assess their level of preparedness for the main census.
He equally noted that it would also be a good time for them to test their readiness for the census next year in Obingwa LGA.
Nwabuisi, who disclosed that Obingwa is one of the Local Government Areas chosen for the trial, thanked the governor for the foresight in the setting up of the State Population Committee under the chairmanship of Eric Acho Nwakanma, a former deputy governor of the state.
He described move as a key step towards a successful census exercise in the state, and assured that the commission will work closely with the committee to capture the true population figure for the state.
In his speech, the chairman of the State Population Committee thanked the governor for establishing the committee and assured that they would do all that is necessary to see that the true population figures for the state are captured in the next census.
