Olayinka Olukoya | Abeokuta
The National Population Commission (NPC), has trained 30 selected journalists for effective reporting of the 2023 population and housing census in Ogun State.
The State Director of NPC, Mr Olusola Adeleye, in his remarks at the capacity workshop held at Engineer’s House, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, informed the participants that the census exercise would be fully digital in compliance with the United Nations on the conduct of census in the 2020s.
Adeleye noted that the Commission had the mandate to conduct a credible census in the state.
He explained that Ogun State has so many peculiarities that distinguished her from other states of the federation, hence the need to train the journalists on reporting the census.
The National Population Commission has expressed the readiness to conduct a credible census, submitting that the exercise will measure the numerical value of the people.
Mr Adeleye stated that the Housing component of the 2023 population and housing census is meant to assess the standard of living of the people, adding that the 2023 exercise is a de facto census, which means that only those who are seen physically would be counted..
The NPC state Director also informed that the exercise will be fully digitised, saying the results will be foolproof , because it can be verified through real time data capturing and instant upload to the server through the cloud computing system.
The Deputy Director Census Department, NPC, Mr Folami Moka, in his presentation on “History of Population Censuses in Nigeria and Structure and Mandate of the National Population Commission”, said that the 1991 census exercise was accepted as the most credible in the history of the country.
The General Manager of the Nigeria Television Authority, Abeokuta, Mrs Funmi Wakama, in her presentation entitled ” Towards Effective Media Coverage of the 2023 population and Housing census”, enjoined the participants and other journalists to join the Commission in achieving its objective.
She explained that all information provided by journalists would be reliably relied on by members of tbe public hence the need for journalists to get the right information from the right sources.
Wakama described the media as veritable partners to this important data generating exercise should play their parts very well to ensure that the outcome is widely acceptable to them.
