TOWARD A SUCCESSFUL POPULATION CENSUS COME 2017 AS THE 2016 WORLD POPULATION DAY IS COMMEMORATED MONDAY JULY 11
On July 11, the global community commemorated the World Population Day.
The day is an annual event observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise
awareness on global population issues. The event was solely established by the
Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the
year 1989. The establishment was inspired by the public interest on July 11, 1987,
which was the day the world’s population reached approximately five billion
people.
Population can be defined as the total
number of persons or animals of the same kind coexisting in a particular place.
It can also be referred to as the summation of all the organisms of the same
group or species that live in the same geographical area, and have the
capability of interbreeding. In most cases, it is the human population that is
mainly taken into consideration because it is the only mode of population that
determines the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as the net worth of a given
society or country.
The last time I checked, the rate at which the population of a certain
locality increases was attributed to two major factors namely, birth rate and death
rate. The birth rate of an existing society such as a province, nation or
country is an estimation of the number of kids that are being reproduced within
a given period of time, while the death rate is the total number of individuals
that cease to exist at a specific interval. It’s noteworthy that every society
or locality is naturally blessed with a certain number of people known as its
population, which increases periodically based on the aforementioned factors.
As Nigeria joins the world over to commemorate the World Population Day,
there’s need for collective support towards attaining a successful population census
in the country come 2017. Based on the United Nations’ recent estimation,
Nigeria is regarded as the seven most populous country in the world with about
178, 517, 000 people as at July 1, 2014 which is equivalent to about 2.49% of
the entire global population. However, currently likewise many other nations,
there’s no exact figure of the country’s population owing to several challenges
or constraints, and it’s pertinent to acknowledge that suchlike phenomenon
negatively affects the workforce of any country involved thereby disrupting its
socio-economic and political strength.
In view of this assertion, it’s
imperative for Nigeria to take a severe measure toward ascertaining the exact
number of persons that hail from the country as well as ensure that the growth
of such population is adequately controlled. So, as the nation awaits her next
population census, come 2017, which is usually observed at every ten years
interval, the National Population Commission (NPC) is expected to leave no
stone unturned towards ensuring that nothing but absolute success is recorded
during the awaited exercise.
First; there’s a compelling need
for rigorous awareness campaign regarding the project. We must take into
cognizance that not every citizen of the country, likewise other developing
nations, is privileged to listen to the radio, watch television, read the
newspaper/magazine, access the internet or the social media, or what have you. To
this end, I implore the NPC to employ all the needed avenues with a view to
ensuring that no citizen of the country is sidelined as regards information.
Thus, collaborating with other relevant corporate bodies to include the
National Orientation Agency (NOA), civil society groups, religious
institutions, and schools, among others, would be very helpful.
Secondly, contrary to the De-facto method of
enumeration that’s intended to be used by the NPC during the exercise, which is
not unusual compared to the previously conducted ones, I strongly insist that
the De-jure method of enumeration would be more reliable and accurate for the
exercise. The latter, if utilized, would unarguably enable the personnel to
acquire the clear picture of every citizen of the country thereby enabling the
commission (NPC) to arrive at a holistic conclusion.
The De-jure method, which involves house-count, would definitely ensure
that every member of a given home or family irrespective of where he/she
resides or is based is duly counted during the census. People shall be counted
based on their respective states of origin; in other words, the houses to be
attended to shall be those that are owned by only the indigenes of the affected
state. This approach would also enable us to acquire the exact number or
statistics of persons that hail from each state of the federation.
During the census, the NPC officials need to request from those present
at the houses visited the documents that indicate the authenticity of the
membership or citizenship of the absentees or those residing abroad, as the
case may be, such as birth certificate, LGA’s certificate of origin and/or
evidence of schools attended. The proposed method wouldn’t only be
result-oriented, but cost and labour effective.
We have been reliably informed by the NPC that only its staff would be
involved in the exercise; it’s a very wonderful and welcome idea. But the
commission is required to use every means to decisively warn its personnel or
any concerned body to steer clear of any form of unpatriotic act including
cheating and indolence while the concernment lasts.
Moreover, the NPC ought to endeavour to introduce a holistic and
adequate database that would stand the test of time as well as update it on a
regular interval to enable the commission maintain a comprehensive statistics
of the country’s population after the exercise. In view of this, a special
department/unit that would man the day-to-day affairs cum well-being of the
database needs to be created in the commission, and reliable experts on ICT
should equally be engaged in the proposed department. For the department to
strive successfully, world-class softwares to be manufactured by
software-developers who would also be part of the department should continually
be employed, and such software must be reviewed at all times; in addition, the
unit ought to boast of anti-hacking softwares and personnel.
Such tactical measure should also
be replicated towards ensuring that the overall birth-rate and death-rate
occurring in the country is constantly and consistently gathered, regardless of
the locality where the event took place. Hence, every maternity and mortuary
operating across the federation must be duly recognized by the NPC whereby
every child delivery or corpse deposition, as the case may be, would be
instantly reported to the commission via the respective ICT departments of the
said centres.
To this end, in event of home child-delivery, such case needs to be
reported to any nearest maternity for onward documentation; similarly, whenever
one dies and his/her corpse isn’t taken to the mortuary, the bereaved family is
required to report such incident to a closest mortuary. This implies that
henceforth, any maternity or mortuary that isn’t recognized or approved by the
NPC must be shut down indefinitely; such monitoring would equally require setting
up of a mobile committee by the commission that would regularly oversee the
existence cum activity of all maternities and mortuaries.
On the other hand, it’s obvious
that the project in question is capital intensive. Hence, the commission in
collaboration with other relevant agencies ought to set up a competent,
formidable and reliable ad-hoc committee strictly for fund raising and other
related matters. Most importantly, there’s a compelling need for the NPC, among
other concerned authorities, to extend hand of fellowship to the cognoscenti
towards attaining a hitch-free and successful 2017 population census in
Nigeria. Think about it!
Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor
(TheMediaAmbassador)
-Public
Affairs analyst & Civil Rights activist-
Chief Executive
Director, Centre for Counselling, Research
& Career
Development - Owerri
_____________________________________
frednwaozor@gmail.com
+2348028608056
Twitter:
@mediambassador
