The National Population Commission, NPC, has opened up on why it cannot reschedule the 2023 census exercise slated for April this year.
Recall that there have been agitations from some quarters for the rescheduling of the exercise due to the timing which coincided with the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan.
The Kano State Federal Commissioner, Isma’il Lawal Suleiman, while speaking during a one-day capacity building for journalists to ensure effective reporting of the exercise, said time is not by the side of the commission to deliver the results to the seating government before it handover power.
Suleiman said, “We have been preparing for the census for years under the current government, we want to make sure we undertake this and produce what we call preliminary results and give this current government before they leave office. We are constraint because there is simply no time from when we would finish this census to when this government will hand over to the incoming government.
“If we delay the census today, we would not be able to produce even the preliminary result and then we wouldn’t know what the incoming government might decide to do. Some of us know that, if you have a good product you can always sale it to whoever.
“So the reason is that, we want to finish this assignment in the life of this government and produce preliminary results and the final results can wait till in the new government.
“Remember the conduct of the census is about a week, it is not going to be throughout the period and the last ten days will not be affected because Ramadan will begins around 23rd March and actual eunumeration will be around 29th March, so it’s about a week after commencement and then just one week and the rest of the days will not be affected,” Suleiman noted.
The commissioner further pointed out that, there are calls by groups and even some commissioner of the commission to shift the exercise further but hoping to convince them as they are still pushing with preparations for the exercise.
