From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
Apex Igbo sociocultural body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, yesterday, said it would mobilise the Igbo and others resident in the South East to participate fully in the 2023 national population and housing census.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Dr. Alex Ogbonnias made the disclosure during the National Population Commission(NPC) stakeholders’ summit for the 2023 census in Enugu. He urged people of the region to ensure they were part of the civic exercise next year.
Ogbonnia said the call was to avoid the possibility of suppressing the population of the region, which could lead to denying them their fair share of allocation in the country.
“If you look at 1952, 1963, 1964 and 1974 census, they were all rejected for not meeting the expectation of the people. The 1988 and 1991 heralded crisis which was detrimental to Igbo cause and we also discovered in 2006, the census was not accepted due to errors in the figures. So, now they are talking about electronic census, I hope they will come out with better and credible result,” he said.
Federal Commissioner representing Enugu at the NPC, Chief Ejike Eze said the summit was to broaden the state level support base for the successful conduct of the 2023 census.
Eze said the summit would help to create public awareness on the conduct of the census and provide platform for clarification and feedback.
“This is the first time the commission is using digital technology for its census,” he said adding that they had embarked on massive sensitisation programme for people of the South East.