May 11, (THEWILL) – The Federal Commissioner representing Cross River State in the National Population Commission, Navy Capt. Charles Ogwa (Rtd), says the commission achieved 80% mark in preparation for this year’s census.
He made this known in Calabar while speaking on preparations for the census before being rescheduled by the president.
He explained that what was outstanding in the state was to tidy up some technical issues and the last level training for local government.
He assured residents of the state not to lose hope as the commission will conduct a digital exercise that will generate reliable data which will be deployed to develop the state by any government.
“We recorded a lot of gains up to 80% in Preparation, what was left was to tidy up some technical issues and the last level of training which is the local government training.
“We will use this postponment to address some issues particularly the issue of compendium of localities and this will minimise litigations after the census.
“I want to raise the hope of every Cross Riverian that the commission is ever ready to conduct a digital exercise that will generate a reliable, acceptable data that will be used to develop the state by any government.
“I want to categorically assure the people of the state that the technology deployed will give this country accurate and reliable data that can stand the test of any world census.
“The technology deployed will generate demographic data which is quite different from elections data”, he said.
He said when a new date is announced by the incoming administration, people don’t need to travel to their communities to be counted because data will be generated down to the community level.
In his words, “Don’t travel to your community to be counted because you will be counted at the right place at the right time.
“If you are from Obanliku and residing outside the state for instance, you don’t need to go back to your community to be counted because we will count you where you are and reflect the figure in your community.
“The technology will also generate data to the community level”, he said.
He added that those who have been displaced by one crisis or the other will be treated as a special population and data generated from them will reflect back in their communities.
He added that despite the postponement, the commission is still continuing with the preparations and has proposed possible new dates for the incoming government.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
