NPC seeks presidential proclamation for 2016 census

The National Population Commission (NPC) on Monday sought presidential proclamation to go ahead with the 2016 population census.
Eze Duruiheoma, chairman of the NPC, stated this when he led other commissioners from the establishment to the Presidential Villa, Abuja to seek the formal proclamation of the proposed 2016 population census from President Goodluck Jonathan.

The chairman disclosed that a response from the president is being expected in a couple of days after which the commission will hit the ground running.

“The last census was in 2006, so in 2016 there ought to be another exercise, so we have come to tell Mr. President about that because we cannot commence until he says go-ahead and the go ahead is by way of proclamation.

“Our mission here is to seek Mr. President’s proclamation on the matter, to tell us to go ahead with the exercise so that we can hit the road running”, he said, adding that the president will come up with a response “in a matter of days”.

Speaking on the controversies surrounding the population census which takes place every ten years, Duruiheoma appealed to the media to educate the populace on the significance of census.

“Generally, let me say yes but there is something I want to make appeal to the press in particular. Let’s ask ourselves why we quarrel over census figures. The press owes it a duty to Nigerians to promote things that will assist us. What I am driving at is this, we need to educate our people, we need to properly inform our people what census is all about.

“Some people see it most often in terms of revenue, which is an ephemeral thing. Yes revenue, which is a very transient thing and maybe representation in the House, but these things are not as important as providing credible data that can aid development over time,” he said.
He further noted that the problems confronting the nation today are “all derived from a single fact that we lack data and because we lack data, we don’t plan. So that is what I think we should be looking at.

“As far as I am concerned, it is only bragging, that we currently do, with some people saying they are more in number than others but those things are not important.

“Talking about data, how are we going to ensure right census figures?”

He appealed to Nigerians to do their part while the commission does its own part to improve on the census data.