By Mohammed Abubakar, Dutse
As part of the preparations for the 2023 population and Houses census, the Jigawa state office of the National Population Commission, (NPC) on Wednesday put together a one-day shareholders’ summit in Dutse, the state capital.
The summit, which drew participants from across the spectrum of the state, was aimed at among others to: create public awareness on the forthcoming census exercise; convince citizens to fully participate in the exercise; solicit the stakeholders’ input and to offer the platform for clarification and receive feedbacks from the citizens.
Declaring the forum open, Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar charged the commission to step up its activities so as to deliver credible head count to Nigerians during the exercise.
Represented by his deputy, Umar Namadi, Abubakar maintained that the time had come for Nigerians to have a reliable data for it’s development, noting that without scientifically proven data, development would not be possible.
The governor, however pledged the state government’s commitment towards cooperating with the NPC to ensure a hitch-free conduct of the exercise in the state, including massive public enlightenment.
Speaking earlier, the National Commissioner in charge of Kano/Jigawa/Katsina, Alhaji Garba Zakka identified dearth of birth/death statistics as the major challenges facing the commission in the state.
He therefore, appealed to the state government to step up it’s efforts at providing the commission with reliable statistics to enable it carry out it’s duties with relative ease.
Towards this end, he called on the state government to engage ad-hoc staff for the exercise, which he described as the flagship exercise, being the first census to be conducted digitally.
However, besides, the complaints of dearth of reliable birth,/death data some of attendants raised issues bothering on the conduit of the census.
For instance, the Chairman of the State Council of Ulamas, Kadhi Bashir Ahmed Birnin Kudu observed that he saw in the prototype form where respondents, especially Muslims were to state, their sect of Islam, saying that should not be so.
However, the state Director of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) Mr. Danbinta Yohanna charged officials with the responsibility of conducting 2023 exercise census, to fear God and do right thing for the peace and progress of the country.
The emir of Hadejia, Adamu Abubakar Maje, who spoke on behalf of the traditional rulers present, pledges the cooperation of the royal father’s with the commission as it plans to kickstart the activities, preparatory for the exercise.
Represented by the Turakin Hadejia, Alhaji Yusuf Dauda, Maje, who is the Chairman of the State Council of Traditional Rulers, said, they were ready to fully enlighten their citizens in order to make themselves available to be counted.
But the State Co-ordinator of the Civil Society Organizations, Muhammad Musbahu Basirka lamented the low attendance of the local government council chairmen in the state, saying, it was sign of lack of seriousness on their part.
He observed that out of the 27 council chairmen in the state, only two of them were physically present, while the remaining 24 were represented, noting that gives the importance of census to the development of the society, such lukewarm attitude by the council chairmen should be frowned upon.
News1 week ago
News1 week ago
News6 days ago