The National Population Commission (NPC) has inaugurated a publicity committee as part of strategies to create awareness among the people of Ebonyi on the forthcoming census.
During the inauguration of the Committee on Friday in Abakaliki, the Federal Commissioner of the Commission in Ebonyi, Mr Darlington Okereke, said that publicity is necessary to achieve successful head count across the nation.
Okereke noted that the target of the 2023 census is to produce accurate, reliable and acceptable census data.
He added that the census exercise would create an inclusive data that would be used by all segments of the society for development planning and critical programme interventions.
‘In all of these, the need for advocacy publicity and public enlightenment cannot be overemphasised.
“As such, targeted advocacy and sustainable publicity is no doubt imperative to the successful conduct of census exercise,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Mr Uchenna Orji, the State Commissioner for Information, commended the Commission and described the census exercise as ‘key” to national development.
Orji noted that the state was committed at ensuring a successful head count and urged all hands be on deck.
He urged the committee to work hard in sensitisation of the public, especially at the grassroots level by using the language that the people could easily understand.
Similarly, Mrs Julia Manyike, the state Director of NPC, said the composition of the publicity committee was to build and sustain broad based state and grassroots orientation partnership for the effective mobilisation of the citizens.
The committee is made up of stakeholders from the state Commissioner for Information, and the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), amongst others.
