The National Population Commission (NPC) has begun the advocacy visit to traditional rulers in Kwara State on the need to sensitise the people on next year’s census.
The Federal Commissioner of NPC for Kwara State, Mr Abubakar Ndakene, disclosed this while leading a team from the commission on an advocacy visit to the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari.
The traditional ruler commended the early preparations of the commission and expressed his readiness to support them.
The team then moved over to Isin Local government where they were received by the Olusin of Isanlu Isin, Oba Solomon Oloyede.
There, Mr Ndakene solicited for the support of traditional rulers in enlightening the populace on the importance of the exercise.
He noted that the exercise should not be mistaken for a census as the commission only wants to update its database by registering the new births in the area.
While urging the people to provide factual figure and cooperate with the enumerators, Ndakene observed that the figures to be collated would be useful during the actual census exercise.
The Chairman of Isin Local government, Maruf Thanni, who was also at the gathering, thanked the commission for choosing the area for the exercise and assured of their readiness to cooperate fully with them.
The National Population Commission has chosen February 22 to March 13, 2016 for the phase two of enumeration area demarcation.
29 states across Nigeria have been chosen for the exercise and Isin Local Government has been selected in Kwara State.
The exercise is meant for demarcates to move around the communities numbering houses and dividing them into enumeration areas using satellite image maps.
