2023 Census NOA Partners with Census Body for Exercise

… Advises Niverians TO Take Full Ownership

By Ifeanyi Ndukwe

The Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Garba Abari, has made a clarion call to Nigerians to take full ownership of the conduct of the 2023 national population and housing census with a view to generating verifiable and internationally acclaimed standard date for all round development of the country.

He made the call during a One Day National Population Commission State Level Capacity Building Workshop on 2023 Population and Housing Census in collaboration with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) held at the Industrial Training Fund, Conference Hall in Awka which was organized for the Management and Field Officers of the two sister organizations.

The DG was represented at the Capacity Building Workshop by his Chief Press Secretary and the Public Relations Officer of NOA at the National Headquarters, Abuja, Mr. Paul Odenyi, who described the theme of the event, “Getting People Involved”, as very apt.

He added that with the involvement of NOA in the conduct of the 2023 census, especially in the areas of mobilization and sensitization aspects of the exercise, Nigerians would witness a new dawn in this year’s census conduct.

He emphasized the need for participants to be very serious with the workshop and to work towards taking the massages of next year’s population and housing census to the length and breadth of the state, especially to the corridors of the traditional rulers, presidents-general, market leaders and religious heads so that they would be educated on all they needed to know about the census.

Earlier in his welcome speech, the Federal Commissioner representing Anambra State in the National Population Commission, Abuja, Mr. Chidi Ezeoke, said their collaboration with NOA was designed to complement the advocacy and publicity activities being carried out by the Commission at the national and state levels towards a holistic implementation of the 2023 population and housing census in all the states across the country, including Abuja.

Speaking on the aim of the workshop, the Anambra State Director, National Population Commission, Awka, Dr. Joachim Ulasi, maintained that the essence of the Workshop was to educate the NOA Management and staff on the methodology and the process for the 2023 population and housing census, as well as to leverage the nationwide and grassroots reach and structures of the agency in publicity campaign of the census.

The NOA State Director, Barrister Charles Nwoji, said the conduct of the 2023 population and housing census was highly technological driven and called on the Community Orientation and Mobilization Officers of the agency in the 21 local governments in the state to take the messages of the workshop down to the grassroots so that the people would be fully aware of the census exercise.

He challenged Nigerians to regard the overall success of the census as a collective task with a view to rewriting the history of the country.