From Ifeoma Ejiofor
The Anambra State governor, Professor Charles Soludo has tasked the National Population Commission on providing accurate data as a panacea for effective planning.
Gov Soludo was speaking when he received a delegation from the Commission who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Awka.
He noted that statistics is everything, and remains the basic requirement for effective planning for development
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t change it! Without data, you can’t plan.” He asserted.
Prof Soludo reiterated the significance of the population commission and the imperative of a full population demographics and not just stating the total number of a location especially for a unique state like Anambra which is estimated to have over 50% of its indigenous population living outside of the state.
“The transit population of Ndi Anambra is more than those domiciled in the state. “The 50% population is just an estimate. We need concrete numbers to plan for the surging population that will arrive the state during the festive period and also plan for traffic control, and for several other social sectors, etc”. He pointed out.
Gov Soludo added that to plan for tomorrow, for purely planning purposes, not just for only residents of Anambra State but also Ndi Anambra living outside of the state; basic data for age population, education, qualification, residential address, persons living with disability, income level, household survey, among others, are basic requisite for planning. He however noted regrettably, that such basic data needed to disaggregate are sadly unavailable.
He assured of maximum security and provision of basic logistics in terms of sensitisation, mobilization, personal and professional assistance, during the exercise.
In his remark, the chairman of the National Population Commission, Hon Isa Kwarra reeled out the intensified efforts made so far by the Commission as they prepare for the national count.
“We’ve commenced pre-test trial census exercise using Idemili South LGA. The specific objectives will be to assess the quality of the enumeration area maps that had been created, determine demographic and geographical changes that might have occurred and their implications.” He said.