The Managing Director, Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Mr Abubakar Gambo, has tasked the National Population Commission (NPC) to conduct an acceptable national census, devoid of acrimony.
Gambo said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, in Kaduna, while commenting on NPC’s plans to conduct the first digital census in Nigeria in May.
“We are optimistic that the census will hold and will be done fairly.
“The outcome must reflect the true population of every state, to help the country in planning and development projections.
“Our major concern is to ensure that the figures are very clear representations of the situation of the North and other regions.
“Anything less than that will be contentious and subject to debate and most likely rejected,” the managing director said.
He expressed the hope that the commission would make history and come up with a census figure “that’s clear and a proper representation of all the regions”.
Meanwhile, Gambo has advised communities nationwide to devise ways of engaging government to ensure delivery of vital services such as education, healthcare and infrastructure.
He said that this was necessary to ensure that government provided what the people actually needed.
According to him, the foundation had been conducting voter education campaigns in universities to encourage students to register to vote in 2023, saying that the campaign would resume when the institutions reopened from the strike by academic staff.
Gambo added that the campaign was not only on voter education, but also against examination malpractice, cultism, sex-for-marks, drug abuse and all anti-social behaviours. (NAN)
