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The conduct of the 2006 National Population Census in Abia State was affected by Separatist groups’ activities and the then administration’s inactions and wrong policy implementation, the National Population Commission has claimed.
Mr Emma Eke who is the federal commissioner for the National Population Commission for the state, made this claim on Thursday when he led the management team on a visit to the Abia State governor, Dr Alex Otti in the state.
He expressed the hope that the forthcoming Population and Housing Census will provide the chance for accurate representation and up-to-date information on the population and characteristics of the state.
“Census serves as a critical source of information on a population’s demographic, social, and economic characteristics which informs policy making, resource allocation, and development planning at various levels of government,” he said.
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In his response, the governor agreed with his guests that population census is critically important for planning and development purposes, adding that its benefits cannot be overemphasized.
“I am happy that you have come to seek our collaboration. I am in complete agreement with you and anything we can do to partner with you,” Otti assured the team.
“Without proper population census, it becomes difficult for an administration or organisation to plan” he added, and regretted the failure of the previous administrations to understand the importance of census.
The governor, who explained that his administration had marked its 11 months in office, noted that it now knows where the shoe pinches most and had done well in every sector to move the state forward.
When we came in, many things were broken and we decided to pick them one after the other. We thank God for how far we have gone. We are not where we want to be, but we are definitely not where we were, he said.
