THE Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, MINILS, Ilorin, in Kwara State, is partnering with the National Population Commission to enhance the excellent productivity of the planned National and Housing Census in the country.

Director General of the labour Institute,Comrade Issa Aremu said this at an interactive session with the leadership of the National Population Commission, NPC, held in the institute, yesterday. Comrade Aremu, while appreciating the leadership of the NPC for its firm commitment to the exercise, said the collaboration will lead to an increase in inputs into the production process.

Speaking on the importance of the census, he said: “When the British colonised Nigeria, they made it imperative to do the headcount so that they would know how many citizens the colonial government would have to take care of. The last census we had was in 2006. Just like NPC was given the mandate to conduct headcount so has Michael Imoudu the monopoly mandate to conduct worker education, and our institute was commissioned in 1983, forty years ago, by the late President Shehu Shagari. So we are marking the 40th anniversary of this great institute, this year, and we are privileged to have what I can call an anniversary sensitisation programme with NPC. We will like to partner with anything that can promote knowledge, literacy, and understanding, which is why we need a census.”

In his address, the National Chairman, National Population Commission, Alhaji Nasir Issa Kwarra, appealed to Nigerians “to join the Commission in the bid to give our dear country, reliable demographic data through the forthcoming 2023 census. This is because our population remains the greatest asset in national development, and it must be harnessed in order to make life worth living for our people.”

While stressing that Nigeria was the seventh most populous nation on earth and will be the third most populous country after China and India in 2050, going by the current rate of growth, he said that relying on an estimate from a census conducted 16 years ago for a country that hosts a significant proportion of the world's population was counterproductive.

He said: “The country's inability to conduct a population census in the last 16 years has created an information vacuum as the data from the last census conducted in 2006 has been rendered less useful for planning purposes,” noting that the data that will be generated from the 2023 Census will greatly assist in local government governance and the socio-economic planning and development of the country at large.

“I want to also use this opportunity to assure Nigerians, especially organised labour, that the Commission is irrevocably committed to positively rewriting the history of censuses in Nigeria and delivering to this great nation an accurate, reliable, and acceptable census that will be purposefully relevant in the drive towards sustainable national development.”

The Commission is confident that the prospect for an accurate and reliable census appears brighter than ever,” he said.