Trial census: Quit if you’re not ready for exercise, NPC chief issues order to officials in Kwara
The Federal Commissioner of the National Population Commission, NPC, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Folorunsho Gidado, has issued a matching order to functionaries of the trial census to quit if they are not prepared for the job.
Gidado, who spoke on Monday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital at the commencement of a 10-day training programme preparatory to the 2023 trial census exercise, begged the participants “to, in the name of God, quit if they are not fit for the job, before they are sent packing by the commission.”
He disclosed that the trial census will take place in nine local government areas of the three senatorial districts in the state, while 99 functionaries will be involved.
In Kwara Central Senatorial District, the exercise will hold in Ilorin South, Ilorin East and Asa Local Government Areas, while Oyun, Ekiti and Oke-Ero Local Government Areas have been designated for the exercise in Kwara South Senatorial District.
For Kwara North Senatorial District, the Commissioner said the exercise will hold in Edu, Moro and Baruten Local Government Areas of the state.
Gidado disclosed that the trial census exercise as a whole will cover 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with six local government areas selected from six states in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria for full population enumeration, while 45 enumeration areas have been selected from each of the remaining 30 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“In total, 4,608 enumeration areas have been selected for this trial census to test run their suitability and readiness for the actual census,” he added.
Gidado further informed that the commission will use a total of 13,500 field functionaries comprising 11,510 enumerators, 1,529 supervisors and 823 facilitators for the trial census.
The state Director of the Commission, Saeed Abdul, described the training programme as a critical aspect of the actual census during which equipment and apparatus will be tested in readiness for the 2023 digital census proper.
He implored the functionaries to be honest in the course of the exercise, ask relevant information and questions for the desired result to be achieved.
State coordinator of the exercise, Mrs. A. Olaide, urged the participants to cooperate during the training programme because they constitute the most critical in the census project.